Zoe and the Psycho
by Storm Blue Lightning Saix
Summary: Zoe has lost the life she once had, but she'll soon wake up to a completely new one...last chapter is up, sequal in progress!
1. ch1

storm: yeah another story i'm on a roll!

cyclonus:BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

storm:(sweatdrop) ok who let you in here?

cyclonus: the story duh!

storm: oh...yeah...(zaps cyclonus with energon stungun)

storm: i do not own transformers there i said now if your excuse me i gota throw Mr. Phyco back in the story (tosses cyclonus in plot)

cyclonus: read and reveeeiiiww! (splash!)

* * *

you know one of those days that starts off completely normal then blows up in you face when you least expect it. When is's all over you life is forever changed but you don't really realize it until it's to late? Well today's one of them days. Actually, now that I think about, I'm lucky to be alive despite that all of three days ago it felt like the exact opposite. Ironic huh? Well thats just how life works, dishing out random events at random people at any random time or place. 

The random time was 9:00 at night on a Saturday. Shaytan, my best friend and mentor let me take the 'hawk out for a spin.

"Your getting a lot better" he says as I smoothly bank in to the right "who knows you might even get up to military standards" I turn breifly to smile at him and Shaytan smiles back.

"Well I did learn form the best"I answer, behind me he chuckles and puts a hand on my padded shoulder "sure did..." he trailed off because the 'hawk was making too mush noise for me to hear. A flashing red beacon pops up from behind the trees and I cornered the helicopter in the direction. I land perfectly and thank Shaytan for all he has done for me. I pop into his mansion real quick to get my things then wave goodbye.

Nick and a few of his friends are in his souped up Nissan and honks the horn at me when they drive by. 'A perfectly normal day' I remember thinking. Of course I'm wrong but I had no clue at that point. One more mile and I'm at camp. It wasent much just a tent and an over sized heat lamp in place of a fire. I chunk my supplies inside as I enter the tent. A couple of candy bars spill out and I figure I might as well eat one now that it's right there. After eating I discard the wrapper and go to bed.

**KABOOM**

My life littraly started flashing before me eyes until it blinded me. Instinct told me to run forward and it saved my skin. The explosion set a near by tree on fire on fell on my tent just as I make it out. I would have stopped and thanked the lord but a very familier droning sound buffeted the air space behind me. I was in half spin before a cold and very big hand snatched me off my feet.

I yelled "what the heck?" as I turned my head as best as I possibly could with wind beating down on me. The site I was met with was a white, orange and lavender helicopter with tented windows. I was about to scream out a rude comment at the thing but several large metal beings, fighting each other like a civil war reinacment interrupted me.

"That minicon is mine!" a particurly bulky bot with horns and tank treads on his shoulders yelled at an equally massive but sleeker robot as it pointed his cannon in it's face. Horn head got ready to fire but the red bot forced the barrel to the side before it blew it's face apart. Unfortunatly the cannon ended up firing in my general direction and the copter holding me about 100+ feet in air dident seem to be making any effort to get the hell out the way ether.

'Oh joy...'

The laser hit the side tearing off the paneling and I vaguely recall seeing the rivets fly past me face. the flames were extinguished by the wind rushing up from underneath as the copter dropped straight down like a weighted stone. With a deafening blend of sound from snapping trees, shredding leaves and finally metal crumpling from impact with a faint splat from an unfortunate squirrel or two or maybe it was me...

* * *

storm: yay glad thats over that story was soooo lame! 

cyclonus: how can it be lame if it has me in it?

storm: dont even get me started...

cyclonus: oh come on!

storm: (tosses Mr. Phyco back in the plot) just reveiw please


	2. Ch2

storm: ok despite the lack of reveiws i've decided to add another chapter anyways because I'm _nice_

cyclonus: yeah so reveiw or I'm gona blow ya all up heeheeheee!

storm: yes what Mr. Phyco said...now the disclaimer

declaimer: storm does not own transformers only the plot

cyclonus: now on with the story!

* * *

When I woke it was day time and I had the worse headache in my life, like my eyes were going to fall out. I shake my head and the pain lessens some what, its enough to clear my senses and let me look around. The site before me didn't surprise me much, torn branches shredded plants and a huge crater underneath the crumped helicopter that had been holding me captive all night. 

I look at the copter and find that it really is'ent damaged very badly at all, when a "normal" helicopter would have been nothing but a pile of crumpled scrap. With some effort I manage to wiggle out of the things hand and hop up on it's wing. The rotor blades were a tangled mess of vines and moss looped around the axil dozens of times over, completely clogging the engine. The underbelly of the air craft had only caved in a little, the worst damage being the gaping hole horn head had blasted into the side. I walked over to the other wing to further inspect this. The whole side is burnt black the wing I'm on bent at a 45 degree angle with a hole roughly the size of a small car just behind that.

"Well this isent a normal copter I know that much, I wonder if it has anything to do with those robots?" I said to myself not really knowing how right I was. Without further word I clamber on top of the roof and pull a black lighter out of my pocket. I give it a flick and a small flickering flame pops out.

Gingerly I press the flame against one propeller to burn off the gunk.

Then repeat the procces with the next three. Once thats done I climb into the white cockpit with a lavender dashboard, orange controls and orange seats. I hate the color but I love the high tech controls so I don't hesitate to grab them. Well abit too high tech I cant figure out how to start it so I end up having to hot-wire the dash, don't know how but I did. The engine comes to life as the blades start to spin. The sound of the blades slicing at the trees is music to my ears.

Eagerly I pull up on the joystick, the copter flies above the swamp stalling but otherwise flies. The base as I like to call it is an old cold war air base used to test some of the new planes the Russians were always drooling over. In fact it still had loose parts from failed experiments all over the place, making the base a perfect hiding spot for it's new craft.

I jumped out and retreated into the main hanger, there I find a blowtorch, some spare paneling and a cordless drill. Hauling the supplies over I first take the blowtorch and weld together any broken pipes which was leaking a strange glowing fuel of sorts. And then just as I was about to start replacing the armor...

"YOU WHAT THE SLAG ARE YOU DOING TO ME HUMAN!"

I jumped about 5 feet in the air and nearly landed on the still active blowtorch.

"Who the fuck said that!" I yelled at the raspy mechanical voice.

"I did you morron!" it screeched back "transform!" A pause and nothing happened "transform, slag'it!" it yelled again yet nothing happened. "Why the pit wont I transform, oh wait it might have something to with that slagging hole in your side cyclonus!" it yeled at it's self.

Thinking that it was incapable of moving I scooted closer. "Um, I can fix you if you like cyclonus?" I offered making sure I used the name he called himself. I got the feeling cyclonus was watching me.

"Why should I accept help form a fleshy?"

"I don't know, why are you asking me that?" I shrugged

"don't get smart with me human" Cy sneered.

"My names not human it's Zoe you talking whirly bird, thingy! I bit back with the worst name calling I had ever done in a while.

"And _I'm_ not a whirly bird I'm a transformer" he said as a matter of factly. I waved it off like a fly.

"Well no wonder kept yayelling 'transform!', I bet your one of those giant fighting robos aren't you?" I asked.

"uh, yeah I am, yourpretty good for a human"

I huffed "duh"then stuck my tounge at him.

"Alright enough horse play I'll make you a deal"

"what kind of deal" I said putting on my best poker face.

"How about you fix me and you don't get slagged?"

"Uh, no" I said flatly "how about I fix you and you tell why you're here in the first place and then I get to come with you?"

"Huh, why would you want to came with us? Don't you what to stay here?"

I shrug "because I'm bored and what do you mean when you said 'use'?"

"The Decptacons, they're the group I'm with I'll tell you more as soon as you get me fixed"

"ok" I begin finishing therepairs needless to say Cyclonus kept barking at me where to put where.

When I was done he told me all about the war the Autobots and Decptacons were going through as I unwired him and stood back excited to see his robot form.

"Ready?" he said

"yes, just do it already!"

"Transform!" with that the helicopter I saw before meshifted around to form a 20 foot tall robot with crystal green optics and a slightly insane grin plastered on his orange face. I only had one thing to say at that moment...

"coool" I said in awe as an equally insane grin spread across my face, mirroring the one on his lips.

For a second there, Cyclonus almost blushed at her comment. After all _no_ human has ever told him he looked cool. Maybe some were along the lines of 'AGHHH!' or 'OMFG!' but never 'coool'.

"Thanks, but why do you say that?" the robot asked tilting his to the side.

"Because who wouldent think that giant robots who turn into helicopters are cool!"

Cyclonus shifted around uneasily "well...you'd be surprised" he said sadly.

"Oh...I see but I'm different thats why you have to take me with you!"

Cyclonus was taken aback at her sudden outburst now clearly thinking she was nuts, just like him. He could hardly hold back the smirk that was threatening to tear his face apart. He always wanted a crazy friend like himself!

"Now hold on a second Zoe remember I told you that we live on the moon right? That means I'll have to call in and have our 'tactician' Trustseal the place up and build a machine that supplies oxygen so you can breath, duh!"

"So call your boss up already and get in the hanger someone might see you out here" I motioned toward the said hanger and gathered up my power tools as I followed. Much to mine and the copter bot's surprise he fit in there quiet nicely. Finally Cyclonus switched on his com link ready for the explosion...

"CYCLONUS WHERE THE SLAG HAVE YOU BEEN!" Megatron's voice boomed in on the other line. He could have swore he hear snickering in the background. "Sorry sir I got hit by a stray shot and was in stasis lock until the next morning, oh and I have a human who wants to join our side" he added on quickly to avoid having his audio receptors blown out by the 'horned wonder'.

Silence ensued on the other line even the snickering had stopped.finally after nearly 15 seconds of silence,Megatron asked much more quietly this time.

"What did you say?"

"I found a human who wants to join our side, her names Zoe and she fixed me up really good too" cyclonus almost laughed into the link. A thoughtful 'hmmm' was heard followed by a near audible smirk. "Ok, Cyclonus you can bring her in as soon as Trust is done with the modifications"

Cyclonus at that point was practically doing a happy dance at the news he just heard.I noticed this and asked "So I'm in?" Cyclonus turned his bright orange face inmy direction and nodded rapidly. Now it wasmy turn to do the happy dance. NowallIhave to dois go and get some supplies from the house andeverything would be set. I informed Cyclonus of this and told him _not_ to blow anything up while I'm gone, he groans at this but complies. I come back a few minuets later to find him fast asleep...and snoring in the hanger were I left him. I sigh and roll my eyes at the scene then settle myself down next to him and sleep tell morning.

* * *

storm: Yes I'm done, AND YOU ALL BETTER REVEIW THIS TIME OR ELSE! 

cyclonus: Ok now you're getting out of hand even for me!

storm: SHUT UP AND GET ME A SODA YOU IDIOT!

cyclonus:Gee, andI thought Megs was bad...

megs: I HEARD THAT! (shoots cyclonus with fusion cannon)

strom: (sigh) there goes another servent, oh well he was getting on my nerves

megs: READ AND REVIEW MORTALS! >:D

storm: you've been in the high grade again havent you?

megs: um...maybe

storm: whatever just do as he says


	3. Ch3

Tori: Hello everyone! welcome to ch3!

Cyclonus: Boy, the last chapters sure had a lot of spelling errors!

Tori: Oh, yes. I'm very sorry for those and that goes for this chappie too. I'M SO SORRY! (cries her heart out)

Cyclonus: Jeez, calm down girl! it's not that big of a deal! (pats her back)

Tori: Yes it is! I'm a writer!

Cyclonus: What about you're editor?

Tori: She's on vacation!

Cyclonus: Oh...well in that case you're doomed! (cackles)

Tori: (stops crying) and thank you to my reviewers! (goes back to crying)

Disclaimer: Tori does not own Transformers Armada

* * *

I woke up from a very peaceful sleep feeling a pair of large metal arms wrapped around me and a grumbling sound right in my ear. Wiggling a bit I see that Cyclonus is clutching me like a teddy bear and snoring like an am-track train. 

"Uh Cyclonus" I whispered, banging my fist against his forehead "wake up sleepy head".

He twitched but only little. I'm now getting frustrated so I take my backpack (which is laying only a few feet away) and whacked him up side the head and yelled "wake up!"

The deranged D-con shot up right, launching off his feet and smashing his noggin on the rafters causing the whole complex to tremble for a moment.

"AAHAHAHAHAHA!" I take a deep breath "HAHAHAHAH!"

Getting on his feet he sees me on my back laughing like the slagging idiot I am. Without much warning instead of getting angry he bursts out laughing. Therefore making me laugh harder.

Five minuets pass before ether one of us is able to speak. Cyclonus finally calms down first.

"Like I said before Zoe, you're not half bad"

"thanks" I say still half laughing. He shakes his head and quiets me down so he can talk to his comrades.

"Hey boss is the base done yet?"

A frustrated sigh comes across the link "no, not yet you idiot" this was Trust.

"When will it be done?"

"NOT FOR ANOTHER HOUR!" Trust shouted causing the copter to stumble a bit. The comm link at that point is cut off. I'm now doing another happy dance knowing that it's only a matter of time before I get to hang out with the giant freaking robots!

Cyclonus was pretty eager to show me around the base, it is the moon after all and few humans have ever been there. He can practically see me gaping at every thing with my mouth wide open and my eyes roughly the size of diner plates.

An hour and a few rocks-thrown-at-Cyclonus'-head-out-of-sheer-boredom later it was finally time to leave.

I literary launched my self inside Cyclonus' cockpit.

Now let me tell you one thing warping is not for everyone especially someone who get motion sick, and by that I mean me! Thankfully the whole experience only lasted a few seconds. Shaking my head clear I stumbled out of Cyclonus' cockpit only to come face-to-face with Megatron himself. Needless to say I felt like a _very_ tiny bug.

The great horned head of the Decepticon leader looked down and scowled at me and I'd shrink further down if it were possible.

"This is the human you brought me Cyclonus?" the deep booming voice asked, however Cyclonus was used to it and didn't waver like I did.

"Yes sir, I'm sure she'll make a good bargain for the mini-cons" Cyclonus grinned widely. I had the distinct feeling Megatron wanted to slap it off his face because I wanted to at that point for what he just said. I mean I'm not a bargain for some mini-con, I came here to stay and I intend to!

After what it seemed like hours Megatron finally nodded in confirmation that _maybe_ I was useful. With a wave of his hand, me and Cyclonus were dismissed and he walked out the room. Within the next split second I was scooped off my feet, placed on Cyclonus' broad shoulder and rushed out the room with me barely able to hold on or talk due to all the air rushing past. Which didn't allow me to cover my ears when Cyclonus yelled at the top of his metallic lungs.

"HEY DEMOLISHOR, I HAVE THE HUMAN WITH ME!"

Temporarily, tone def I didn't catch much of what he said next, but he stopped nearly making me fall off.

How funny I must have looked when the tan and red tank looked over and saw me laying across the copter's shoulder looking like I'm going throw up!

Thankfully for Cyclonus, I didn't.

"Hey Cyclonus I think you should be a little more careful with her" the tank bot suggested pointing to me. I must have had anime swirls in my eyes because Cyclonus started cackling again which got the irritated attention of a certain gray seeker.

"Cyclonus for the last time would you SHUT THE SLAG UP!"

"Can it cone-head!" I shouted out of the blue too annoyed (and dizzy) to have much control over my mouth at that moment. Cone-head glared at me but the effect was lost as _both_ the copter and tank bots' started laughing, making Trust leave out of sheer annoyance. I didn't laugh only because I was still too disorientated from my earlier ride to do so.

After that Cyclonus took me to see the rest of the base _much _slower this time much to the relieve of my stomach. Now for one thing the base is in one word _huge _so this took quit a while to accomplish. But it wasn't wasted because it was quit possibly the coolest thing that I had ever seen. The entire base, according to the insane copter, was an old spaceship so course it made completely out of metal. What confused me the most was how Neil Armstrong could have missed it when he landed on the moon.

Aside from being made out of metal, most of it was covered in rust and cosmic dust. Which might look endlessly disgusting to some, but to me it seemed to fit the overall dark and intimidating nature of the whole complex. Strange I know but I'm not really that neat ether so whatever.

The only thing that really bothered me about the place was all the loose wires hanging all over the place. And more then once my 'tour guide' almost tripped over them which would have sent me to a very quick and relatively painless death only _if _Cyclonus landed on top of me.

Eventually, the tour was over so Cyclonus took me to see the rest of the transformers. The first one we ran across was a red seeker, who's general visage just screamed arrogance Which is fun because his name turned out to be Starscream.

"Hey Starscream this is Zoe" Cyclonus grinned "the human I told you about"

Starscream gave me a sour look that had so many underlaying emotions besides disgust underneath that is wasn't even funny, needless to say I started to feel sorry for the poor guy. A few seconds later Starscream walked off without saying a word. Cyclonus shrugged one shoulder (the one I wasn't on) and continued.

"Well thats it" he stated boringly "so lets head back to my room so you can get settled"

I nodded rapidly, wanting to really take a nap and gave a big yawn with the insane copter following suit.

His room was pretty much like the rest of the base. Run down and old. He let me down on his desk and I plopped my bags down next to me. Looking around I saw nothing that looked like it would be remotely comfortable. Cyclonus saw what I was doing and moved me over to his recharge bed and pointed to his...file cabinet.

You heard right a file cabinet.

I shrugged in confirmation so Cyclonus picked me up and took me over to the huge metal storage box that was a file cabinet. Opening up the bottom drawer, he dropped me inside so I can look around. Much to my surprise I found it to be the size of a large bedroom with enough space here for furniture too.

I gave my insane friend a reassuring nod so he lifted out of the drawer and set me down on his desk. Where then I pulled out a blanket and a pillow and curled up for a nice cat nap.

Cyclonus did much the same as he laid out on his bed, pausing for a quick stretch before going off into recharge.

* * *

Tori:(sweatdrops) oops...I made a mistake 

Cyclonus: What'd you do this time?

Tori: I put Thrust in the story before Iintroduced Scavenger

Cyclonus: (looks confused) huh?

Tori: (sighs) this story is supposed to take place right before the episode 'overmatch'

Cyclonus: (falls to the floor laughing) PRIMUS, WHAT A STUPID MISTAKE!

Tori: (sniffs) so I'm sorry yet again for the errors so please forgive me and review


	4. Ch4

Tori: Yes! I finally have it up. Sorry that this took so long but all the reseach I had to do was killing me! And a little note, this chapter takes place durring the episode 'overmatch' so there will be no Thrust.

Scavenger: Well at least you stuck dialong well enough, and i wasn't OOC.

Tori: True. I did go out of my way to watch the whole episode on DVD and write out the diaong that way. So no flaming me!

Scavenger: Tori does not own the Transformers. Now on with the story.

* * *

Rolling over on my side, the small bit of skin that my shirt didn't cover scraped against a patch of rust. I bolted up as the resulting pain shot through me. Looking down I saw a small amount of blood seeping through my thin white tank-top.

"Great" was all I said.

Across from me on the large recharge bed was my insane helicopter friend in a light recharge, snoring away like it was nobody's business. Ignoring this I took out a first aid kit from my ever useful backpack and nursed my wound. Suddenly the loudest alarm I ever heard blared through out the base. Cyclonus started up with a jolt and tumbled out of his bed in a heap. Almost as soon as that happened he dragged me off my feet and carried me into the throne room.

The rest of the D-cons were already there awaiting orders.

"Alright men the mini-con is some where in the mountains so lets move out!" he roared to the small crowd. Starscream looked like he was about to say something but Cyclonus beat him to it.

"Hey can Zoe come along?" the copter bot half cackled in excitement, carefully shifting me around in the crook of his arm.

"No" was the answer "we'll save her for a more...appropriate time"

"Why?" Cyclonus muttered in confusion.

"Just" Megatron growled and scrunched up his face in a scowl "do as I say"

The insane D-con just shrugged and grumbled under is non existent breath. As it was, Cyclonus put me down on the ground and grunted in displeasure "you can watch the battle from that monitor over there" and pointed over to said screen. As they left, I climbed into the transformer sized chair and sat down on a rust free patch of metal on the desk.

Behind me the warp drive hummed to live, transporting it's occupants to their destination.

With a few typed commands the screen flickered to life.

It was night time over there so the camera, wherever it was placed had to adjust to the lack of light. Once that was done the screen showed a beautiful mountain setting with the moon shining bright in the background. I panned the camera to the left just in time catch a glimpse of a strange figure hidden under a thick brown cloak that was fluttering calmly in the breeze.

I blinked for a second and the dark figure was gone like it wasn't even there. I can't really remember much after this because I fell asleep.

Yes I'm a light weight when it comes to sleep.

The hum of the warp drive woke me up and the sight my eyes were met with was four very pissed off D-cons. My poor friend had his shoulder severed, while starscream was missing a wing and holding onto what looked like the hilt of a broken sword. Demolishor stumbled in a moment later holding all four of his shoulder cannons in one gun-hand and the other was rubbing his arm in a sore manner. Megatron looked fairly undamaged but he had on what was by far the most terrifying scowl that I had ever seen in the fifteen years that I've been alive.

Cringing inwardly I hopped of the counsel and trotted over to Cyclonus to ask

"what the hell happened?"

Apparently it was the wrong thing to say.

"We got _slagged_ that's what!" he growled at me. I didn't take much offence to it and followed the copter to the med bay. His mood was improved some what but he still had Megatron's ranting to deal with. As a comforting gesture I decided to go with him.

"What is the meaning of this?" Megatron growled "I have never seen such a pathetic combat"

"but Megatron, it was that Star Saber honest" the copter whined "other wise we would have crushed them"

"and that is precisely why we must steal the sword" Megatron roared "so we are left with no choice but to infiltrate the autobot base once more"

Then it was Demolishor's turn to complain "no, no! Anything but that we'll never make it out of there alive Megatron"

The leader said nothing in response but he did seem at least somewhat thoughtful.

"I see that you're surrounded by incompetence Megatron" a menacing voice said from the shadows causing me to jump and cling onto Cyclonus's foot.

I looked up a second later to see the very same figure from the mountains walking into the light. He was clearly a transformer but because of the cloak all I could see were two sickeningly yellow optics set into a soot grey face with a silver crest upon his brow.

"So much for you're reputation as the lord of destruction" he half laughed.

Pulling back a bit Cyclonus questioned his arrival as did Demolishor but the transformer simply ignored them.

"Ah Scavenger" Megatron chided "I see you made it my loyal minion"

The tan tank turned to his leader in question "you know him Megatron?"

"Yeah what's going on?" Cyclonus added on.

"I called for him to come to my side" the purple tank answered "this mercenary can assist us"

Now I was nervous and from the looks of it so was the helicopter.

He was cut off as the mercenary let out another laugh "I wasn't sure I would respond to you're request, but I made up my mind after witnessing that battle and from the looks of things you need all the help you can get"

Starscream paused from his repairs to scowl at Scavenger before the mercenary continued "but still I'm impressed that you would have a base here it's perfect for a warp facility. And" he turned his gaze to me and in an attempt to avoid it I retreated farther behind my friend's ankle

"I see that you've managed to capture a human, nice work Megatron. Sometimes you're intelligence surprises me"

"spare me the rude comments. Calling you here was a last resort believe me" Megatron said in response "and as for the human, Cyclonus brought her here as a pet, I had nothing to do with it. But we must have that Star Saber" he paused "are you welling to assist us my friend I'll make sure it's worth you're while"

"Megatron!" Starscream screeched from the back of the room "we don't need help from the likes of him!"

Scavenger only smirked "Megatron I've heard rumors about these three assistance of you're. Some claim that they are among the most fearsome of the decepticons. So much for believing everything you hear"

Starscream had clearly had enough. I backed down prepared for an all out fist fight.

"That's it I wont stand for these insults!" with that the seeker charged, completely ignoring Megatron's orders to stand down. But faster then the eye or optic can see Scavenger whipped out one tread arm from under his cloak and aimed it at the seeker's face, coming mere inches from punching it in.

"Thats enough Starscream" Megatron ordered "unfortunately you pale in comparison to Scavenger"

And just as I though the merc had a remark about this too.

"Admirable, you wanted to stand up to me even though you're arm has been severed, you seem to have much more courage then even Megatron himself"

Megatron shot him a glare but said nothing but said nothing about it.

"I'll take you on once you're arm has healed of course" a with that he withdrew his arm under the cloak once more and left with another menacing laugh trailing behind his retreating visage.

If I had to decide one thing about this guy it was that I _really_ didn't like him.

I looked up at Cyclonus as he left the throne room "I don't trust that guy" he nodded agreement but didn't speak. It was then a new unspoken rule formed between us, avoid Scavenger at _all_ cost.

The next day the mini-con alarm went of and again I was forced to watch via monitor. I ignored the first part of the battle to get myself a coke but when I came back, Scavenger had made appearance to the autobots. The looks on their faces where funny but what the mercenary said next nearly made me choke on my soft drink..

"hmm, it's been a long time Optimus"

"what the hell was that supposed to mean?" I spat after coughing the soda out of my lungs.

The yellow bot who was currently wielding the Saber said "hey what's the deal you know this creep?"

Scavenger emitted his trademark laugh as he cut off the 'bot "I'll spare you the details, but if it wasn't for me he wouldn't be spending his life caught up in these battles"

I was as dumbfounded as the autobots. I panned the controls over to leader of the enemy faction to see if he would deny it.

He didn't.

"It's true you were the one who taught me to fight. A long, long time ago"

The realization hit me like a ton of bricks.

'He's an _autobot_!' I mentally screeched. With a punch of a rather large button the screen flickered off and I sprinted to the warp room to confront the spy.

Fifteen _long_ minuets later the Decepticons and the spy (now cloak-less) came back with the mini-con clinched tightly in Megatron's claws.

I wanted to confront him somewhere were the others wouldn't hear so I waited and followed them to the throne room.

"Why? Why wont it revive?" Megatron snarled as his horns glowed and shot a lavender light down at the gold mini-con. It glowed in response but it soon faded much to the leader's dismay.

"Perhaps" Demolishor offered sheepishly "the mini-con is similar to the Star Saber and wont revive tell three mini-cons are united"

Megatron growled out something along the line of "what?"

"don't you knew the legend?" the 'mercenary cut him off. He stood there, tread arms folded in front of his black chest plate as Megatron asked.

"What legend?"

"The legend" the bulldozer replied "of the shield that blocks the Star Saber of course"

Megatron looked down at the mini-con "a shield..." he thought to himself before braking out into maniacal laughter all of which I ignored and glared laser sharped daggers at Scavenger.

I had enough and stormed out of the room and waited for the spy.

He came out a moment later once Megs had calmed down.

"_You_" I snarled as animalistic as I could. Since he never heard me speak before he looked around to see who was talking to him.

"Down here you idiot"

He finally saw me and smirked "so the human finally speaks"

"be quit I need to talk to you _autobot_"

he seemed a lot less taken aback then I expected him to be.

"What makes you say that?" he cackled.

"Don't give me that slag" I cursed "you made a big mistake by telling everyone that you used to teach Prime. That means you _had_ to have been and autobot at the time"

In response he gave me the most smart ass grin I had ever seen.

"_Very_ clever Zoe" he chuckled darkly calling me by my name "you were the last person I expected to figure that out"

my scowl only worsened "we'll see how smug you are once I inform Megatron of this"

"HA! Who do you think he would believe?" he laughed loudly "me...or _you_?"

'Damn he has a point' I thought bitterly.

"Slag..." I spat out in defeat. He chuckled agin but it had lost all it's former smugness as he reached down and gave me surprisingly gentle pat on the head. With that said and done he left me to my thoughts.

'Maybe he's not so bad after all...'

* * *

Tori: (sighs and falls on couch) finally I'm done...

Scavenger: That wasn't so bad now was it?

Tori: Sort of...

Scavenger: Ah, well. At least you got it done.

Tori: Please read and review people! And those bios for my other stories are here so if ya want one please tell me in a review or E-mail me.


	5. Ch5

OMG I'm SO freaking sorry this is so god damn late. School has been absolute HELL and I had to serve ISS today for getting my stupid I-Pod taken away... Also please note that this chapter is loosly based off of the episode Gale. But since I didn't have the transcripts I ended up having to write from scratch. I apologize for any spelling or grammar errors this may have and for any other reason that you might not like about this, if so please tell me. And for the lateness... Again.

Disclaimer: Tori aka Storm Blue Lightning Saix does NOT own Transformers Armada. The only thing she owns is the plot and her OC character Zoe. So please don't sue.

* * *

The first thing that happened the next morning was the mini-con klaxon going off. For a minuet my brain told me it was time for school so my hand reflexively fingered for the alarm clock that would have been sitting on my night stand had I been at my house. However since the Moon Base was no where near Florida all I ended up groping was Cyclonus' nose. Said helicopter rose from the recharge bed, moaning and rubbing one jade green optic.

"Stupid mini-con, can't it wake up when I'm _not_ sleeping!?" my friend complained bitterly then hauled himself off the bed.

"Forgetting someone?"

"Er, oh yeah sorry Z" he reached over and picked me up.

The rest of the team (including Scavenger) was already gathered around the holo-screen by the time we got there, meaning we were late. Starscream sent me a contemptuous glare but said nothing insulting as Megatron began to speak up.

"Decepticons!" he boomed "the mini-con is located near a fleshling settlement, so what ever you do don't alert them! And that means you Cyclonus"

A collective "yes sir!" mixed in with a "slag..." (From Cyclonus) was his answer. And with that we were off on our marry little adventure. Whoopie...

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Highway 45 was packed as it usually was at this time of day. Cars, trucks and even a van or two started and stopped at regular intervals as the traffic slowly crept forward at a slug's pace. One man slumped over the steering wheel of his Ford Mustang in frustration. The woman in the white Chevy a car's length ahead of him idly sipped her coffee, a bored expression on her face.

The sound of a powerful compact motor broke the long, unrelenting silence as a sleek purple and yellow motorbike zoomed in and out of the lanes. The black clad rider paid no heed to the loud complaints of the rush hour waiters, even as the man and woman both aimed a middle finger in his general direction. The rider needed something and he needed it _now_, the traffic was only a minor set back to him.

-----------------------------------------

"Great it's underground" Starscream growled in a sour tone as the mini-con tracker pointed to a small cave below his flight path. I was ridding inside Cyclonus' cockpit so I could see it quit clearly. The helicopter landed then transformed after letting me out. Megatron, Demolishor, Starscream and Scavenger followed suit shortly after.

"Scavenger start digging, Demolishor you keep watch, Starscream and Cyclonus search for the Autobots and engage them" Megatron ordered his not so loyal troops.

"it's bot smashing time!" the insane one cheered and transformed, leaving me on the ground. Scavenger reverted to bulldozer mode and backed up into the cave, Demo stood by the entrance and Starscream took off again.

"What about me Megatron?" I had the courage to ask.

Megatron looked down and scoffed at me like I was a rat in a trap before replying "go by the road and...play, or whatever you humans like doing for entertainment" with that he walked off.

'I'm not a three year old, god damn it!' I felt like screaming but my common sense told me to keep my mouth shut so I did.

With that said and done I climbed up the overpass above the cave and wondered up and down the shoulder watching cars zip by on the freeway. Finding an old beer bottle on the ground, I decided to amuse myself by kicking it into traffic and hearing it getting crushed into hundreds of tiny pieces by the tires of countless vehicles.

"Hey, you shouldn't be doing that!"

I looked over to my left to see two boys, one was skinny (for a boy) with messy brownish blonde hair and a fat one with black hair.

"Go screw you're self" I growled in reply and began to mindlessly pick through the trash that had collected by the guard rail. Both boys were taken aback at my sharp tounge before they looked at each other and began to advance on me.

"watch you're mouth girl!" the skinny one yelled. He obviously thought that since I was a girl with very little body mass that he could order me around like I was nothing. But what he didn't take into consideration was the fact that I was three years older and the same number of inches taller. Of course he didn't realize any of this because I was crouched down.

I stood up to my full height, a good 5 feet 3 inches, with eyes narrowed into tiny blue slits and a nasty frown on my face. To my great satisfaction the two geeks gulped and began to back off... right until a purple and yellow sports bike came to a screeching halt on the shoulder and nearly ran my damn foot over!

"Watch where you're driving ya idiot!!" I fumed with anime fangs hanging out my mouth. The driver turned around and looked at me through the tinted visor of his helmet. It was then that I suddenly realized what I had just done and quickly stumbled over an apology. The cyclist stayed eerily quiet as he put the bike on it's kick stands and climbed off, walking towards me. On instinct I froze, the unknown rider in a black jumpsuit looked me over very carefully, or at least he seemed to.

"So you're the one" although his face was hidden I could tell he was smirking just from the tone of his voice. The two boys had already hauled ass so I was left alone with this... creep!

"What are you fucking talking about!?" I bit back while coking my fist back ready to strike, my body going into my famous stance of the 'sucker punch then run' technique. The dark rider stood up straight and took his helmet off. As soon as I saw him I could tell was he diffidently not human, instead his face was that of robot's... Like a transformer's!

"Autobot or Decepticon!?" I demanded of him, still stuck in the punch-then-run-like-all-hell-was-after-you position. He laughed the dark, mechanical laugh of a robot then looked me right in the eye with his ruby pink optics, and oh how I HATE pink!

"It doesn't matter my dear" he answered smoothly and before I knew it he had whisked me onto his bike in a matter of seconds. With no time to struggle I was soon taking off down the busy highway on some weird transformer who calls me 'tho one'. Needless to say I was scared shitless.

-------------------------------

"WOOHAHAHAHA!!!" a missile came flying at a large semi hauling around a backhoe strapped to the flat bed hooked up to it's rear.

BOOM!! The explosive metal tube hit home.

The truck and the trailer's contents were quickly flung onto the tarmac effectively blocking all lanes of traffic for many miles. With resinating laugher the helicopter responsible for the chaos left the air space with haste.

"Slagging traffic jam!" a bright yellow sports car growled in annoyance as the red semi and blue cargo trailer in front of him came to a full stop. An orange construction crane pulled up next to him in a similar state of emotion.

"Be calm Hotshot" a wise older voice said from the red truck. Hotshot sighed in frustration and addressed the crane to the left of himself.

"Hey Smokey didn't you drop off Billy and Fred already?"

"Yep, should I give them a call?" Smokey or really Smokescreen asked.

"Yes you should, I have a bad feeling about this" the semi yet again spoke up, the occupants inside it's cab squirmed nervously, or atl east one did.

"I bet those two are out mooning traffic" Rad huffed, even though the former bullies had joined their team, the preteen still didn't like them much.

"Hey, now I though you settled you're differences?" the truck told the blonde in a stern, yet oddly father like tone.

"With those morons? Yeah, right" Rad said right back. A sigh of expiration was heard from the back seat of the tuner car as Alexis, the mature female of the group face palmed.

"Hey don't worry about them amigo" the laid back Hispanic replied to his best friend he's had since early in elementary school.

"Carlos is right" Smokescreen cut in "they'll be okay, but I'll give them a call anywa-"

the crane was cut off as the comm buzzed to life with rapid shouting "wesawthisrudegirlontheroadandwentottalktoherbutsheflippedusoff! Thenthisweirdbikenearlyranusoverandkidanpedher!" Fred frantically spat out.

"Huh?" Hotshot questioned blankly.

"I think Tubby said they saw some rude girl on the road and went to talk to her but she flipped them off" Rad translated "Then this weird motor bike nearly ran them over and kidnaped her"

"Did you see who the rider was?" Optimus, the red semi asked concern clear in his voice.

"Yeah! He looked like a robot!" Billy shoved Fred away from the comm.

"You think he might be a transformer?" Smokescreen addressed his leader as the traffic finally began to quicken it's pace.

"Most likely" Hotshot answered for his leader and mentally nodded he recklessly drove off the road then onto the dirt once the overpass ended and the normal road began.

"Always the impulsive one" Smokescreen chuckled and followed, Optimus pulled over a moment to let the kids out.

"Keep in contact" Optimus Prime ordered before he to went off road.

----------------------------------

"Isaidslowdownyoucrazyfuckerbeforeishovemyfootupyou'reshinymetalass!!" I yelled at the top of my lungs addressing Sideways. The purple bike and rider revved the engine in a mocking fashion as he picked up speed. According to the speedometer the sports bike was going at an excess of 150 mph, about 30 miles faster then most Harleys. My stomach lurched forward as Sideways hit a dirt mound and flew into the air like Evil Cheneville.

Of course I screamed my damn head off and was knocked out by the landing as the bike came to a dead stop at the end of the jump. Sideways winced as my chin slammed into his back, he then turned around to see me flop off the bike in a pile of scrawny limbs and hair.

"Oops, guess I went too fast" he chuckled mirthlessly and pulled me up by the back of my shirt so he could sit me down in front of him, this way I wouldn't fall off again and become road pizza. The bike hit the throttle, bursting down the overpass and startling Demolishor. Said tank immediately switched to his secondary mode and fired at the motorcycle not knowing I was on there. Inside the tunnel Scavenger stoped digging to growl something unflattering before backing out of the cave at high speeds.

The tan and red tank swerved out of the way to avoid being flattened as the bulldozer flew out the entrance and transformed. Spotting the source of all the commotion he lifted up a heavily armored leg and tried to stomp on Sideways like a cockroach. The violet cycle darted away and the merc missed badly, cracking the tarmac underfoot into large chunks.

--------------------------------------

Back at the highway the children sat by the road, monitoring Laserbeak as the mechanoid bird watched the whole thing.

"Optimus!" Alexis called into the comm "I found that sportsbike and it's harassing the cons!"

"Where are they?" came the reply.

"Below an overpass, to you're right"

"thanks" with that the comm went silent.

The brightly colored semi rumbled down the dirt path with ease, his troops close behind. The sound of explosions reached his audios, he transformed just in time to see Sideways hit another jump and knock Cyclonus clean out of the air like a fly getting smacked by the swatter. My long golden hair was easy to see flailing too and fro despite the blurriness of the scene. It was then that Optimus knew he had found me.

'But what did that transformer want with her?' he asked himself worrily.

The head autobot soon had his answer as the motorcycle parked in front of him.

"Found the girl with the Decepticons, figured that I might save her from them" he said lifting me off of the seat and setting me at the Prime's feet. Optimus carefully knelt down and started to pick me up when a blast of lavender energy knocked him over onto his side.

"Stay away from her!" Cyclonus seethed more then he ever had in his life. Sideways transformed in response. the rider flying into the air before splitting in two. One side becoming the head while the other half shifted back into another robot, this time a mini-con. The newly reverted transformer scooped me up just as Cyclonus made an attempt to dive at me. The con ate dirt and was kicked into stasis lock by the short but nimble motorbike.

Once the bulldozer was finished beating up Hotshot he turned to Sideways and saw me cradled in his left hand. Scavenger snarled and heaved himself into a flying tackle that plowed Optimus into the ground. Sideways jumped slightly in surprise right before I was snatched from his hands. The merc dive rolled out of the way, being as careful as he could with me just as a HUGE blast from Megatron himself blew up the land he had just been standing on. The horned wonder then barreled into Prime as the autobot recovered and got to his feet.

Seconds later reinforcements for the good side of the battle arrived in the form of Smokescreen. The crane wrapped his chest mounted grappling hook around the heavy tank's foot, giving it a good yank that pulled Megatron off of Prime. Demolishor regained his senses and fired at Smokescreen but was not getting many hits. Scavenger meanwhile had taken cover behind a large boulder uproot from the battle to check if I had any injuries, I had one hell of a bruise on the side of my skull. At that time I woke up groaning and holding the big purple, green (and very sore) blot.

"What in the name of the name of Steve Irwin's ghost happened?" I slurred, still half in lala land.

"Not time to explain just stay here" Scavenger said before he outright dumped me on the ground and leapt over the rock to rejoin the fight. And for once in my life I did as I was told and stayed put. Unknown to me a dark shape lingered in the shadows of the rocky overhang. Without warning Rook tackled me with a well placed leap and I was soon wrestling to stay conscience. Unfortunately it was a battle I lost. The mini-con having completed his task, dragged me into the cave where the panel had been found, waiting there was Sideways.

The motorcycle already had the neon green plate of alloy in his position and but still going after me. Rook handed my limp form over to his master who gave a chuckle as he placed me in the palm of his hand. He left the panel with his minion as he used his now free hand to summon a strange swirling light at the tip of his index finger.

The bike then pressed it into my chest just below the neck, the large bruise that Rook had made during our little one-on-one faded away like an old pair of jeans as was any small scars that had formed on my body in the past 15 years that I've been alive. Once the dark silver digit was lifted away a sort of insignia resulted, set into my skin like a tattoo. A few seconds later it was gone, faded away the bruise had. Behind his mask the ninja like transformer grinned.

"Excellent" he purred then instructed Rook to take me back to where he had found me. Once his minion came back Sideways transformed and raced out of the cave. The Autobots had won yet another fight and all of the Decepticons had retreated with the exception of Scavenger. As it was he stayed out of sight and crept by the rock he had left me behind. He found me (still out cold) and took me back, but also noted the lack of injuries.

With only the good guys now remaining, Sideways transformed and flashed the red insignia on his chest. Although somewhat wary Optimus and the others welcomed him, after all with the addition of Scavenger to enemy side, things were getting difficult. The kids on the other hand loved him and were constantly asking for rides.

As for me I spent the next five hours in the med bay sleeping while Cyclonus looked after me (in a bit of a panic, no doubt). I would have to thank Scavenger for saving later but for now (unknown to me) that strange ritual Sideways had performed on me was stirring up powers that had laid dormant inside of me since birth. No marks or indications were present except the faint red outline of the motorcycle's finger tip. No, there would be no warning...

* * *

Hehehe, god damn it I love doing cliffies. I can just picture the readers beating on their computers in irratation. And yes Sideways does play a large part, hey Cyclonus isn't the only psycho in Armada. A little easter egg didcated to Steve Irwin is in there too, just so ya'll know... And since the last chapter was such a huge sucsses, I'll be putting in a lot more plot twistes. Most of which well hopfully go over well and I WON'T have to rewrite anything... That would totally suck monkey balls. Rating well be changed due to the cursing so don't worry about that. Last but not least REVIEW PLEASE! 


	6. Ch6

Tori: Yes! my first quick update in a while. This chappie reveils more about Zoe's past with a nice plot twister like I had promised. Cyclonus will become more involved in later chappies but for now it's focusing on Sideways. This takes place in the eppie where Hotshot gets the slag beaten out of him and SW joins the cons just so ya know. Sorry in advance for any mistakes I might have missed while proof reading.

Disclaimer: Tori does not own Transformers Armada, only Zoe and the plot.

* * *

"I don't like this Prime" a massive form clad in dusty shadow whispered in a hushed but still very gruff voice. A worried sigh was heard over the comm system as his commander on the other end spoke up.

"Sideways has done nothing suspicious, in fact he's seems to be rather fond of the kids"

Scavenger grunted in a disbelieving manner before he continued "then why was he after Zoe?"

The other bot made a thoughtful noise "well... he did say that he was trying to save her from the cons"

The green and purple mech almost growled in frustration but managed to stop himself. Good thing too because right now a even something as small as a pin drop could be heard in the dead silence of the Moon Base during recharge hours.

"Then how did he know she was with them?" the slightly older one insisted.

"I asked him that same question" Optimus intoned "he claimed that he had seen the cons coming while he was on the highway, Zoe was with Cyclonus at the time"

"it's... convincing but I still have a bad feeling about him"

"so do I, as far as what Red Alert had dug up about Sideways on the Cybertronian Archives we don't know hardly anything about him" Prime answered, a slight edge to his voice.

"Well I've never heard of him before and I know _most_ Autobots"

"same here... Has Zoe woken up yet?" Prime asked, addressing my current condition.

Scavenger thought for a moment before replying "nope, sorry"

"still? It's been three earth days" Optimus's voice was raised a bit out of concern.

"I know" the bulldozer sighed "Zoe wasn't injured, even though Sideways had been rough with her. I see no reason why she shouldn't have come to by now"

"are you sure there's nothing else wrong with her?"

"Not as far as I'm concerned, but it's been a while since I last seen her" Scavenger said with another sigh.

From the ensuing pause that came, he could easily guess that Prime was greatly concerned about my will being.

"can you check on her please?" the red one asked softly. Scavenger gave an audible nod then turned off his comm. He carefully opened the med bay doors to see Cyc resting with his head in his arms, propped up against the table I was laying on. Thankfully Scavenger didn't have to worry about accidentally waking up the copter since Cyclonus was a _very_ heavy sleeper. But not quit as much as the bull dozer himself.

The said mech's golden optics lowered in concern as he saw me curled up into a tight little ball, moaning. With a small tap to the side of his head, he reopened the link.

"She doesn't look good at all " was what Scavenger had to say.

"You think Sideways is responsible?" Prime responded after a few seconds.

"Either that or she might have some human disease"

"Is she showing any symptoms?" his leader asked, again his voice clearly portrayed the worry the Optimus must be feeling right now. That was one of the reasons Scavenger liked Prime, he was serious towards Decepticons but had a soft spot for every thing else. The old autobot smiled slightly as this came to mind but he didn't let it be know in his voice.

"Zoe seems to be in quit a lot of pain"

"I want you to bring her back as soon as you can, until then keep an eye on her. If her condition worsens or if she won't wake up then take her to a hospital right away" Optimus ordered, his tone much more serious.

Scavenger replied with a brief "yes sir" before turning the comm off yet again before sighing in such a way that it him sound a lot older then he appeared (which is old as dirt). Sometimes his former student relied to much on his emotions.

The bulldozer looked back at me and noted that I had finally settled back into a deep sleep after my short fit. Lingering for a moment more, the dark powerful mech left the room hoping that things would be better in the morning.

//dream phase//

darkness engulfed me like the mouth of a huge black beast. The florescent chains that held me in place glowed a soft green almost like they were radioactive. Even weirder was the fact that they made absolutely no noise even as I violently yanked at them with my unbound hands. In frustration I spat out a curse only to discover that I had no voice, at least not one that came from my mouth. More like it was coming from everywhere at once.

Okay, _now_ I was freaked out.

Forcing myself to think I hastily formulated a plan and it turned up as follows. First, get these chains off of me. Second, find out where the hell I am. And third (if I get that far and if it was even possible) find a way out.

'Okay Z, step one. You can do it just gotta calm down' I pep talked myself but it only served to make even more nervous 'to hell with it, let's just get this over with!'

Taking a deep breath/gulp, I set to my task. Looking down I noticed one end of the chain was loose, dangling at my side. I reached over and gave it a good firm tug. The result wasn't much, but at least it looked promising. With that I began to carefully untie the glowing links of _metal?_ Until the loose bit grew a little longer. At that point the end snagged and I felt all the hope that I had managed to gather sink down into the proverbial abyss like an iron anvil in quick sand.

'SLAAAAAAAAG!!!' was what I mentally screamed, my eyes probably bugging out of their sockets. However I was quickly cut off as a dark chuckle pierced the void like a dagger through a piece of toilet paper. At first I didn't know who it was but as the short slim figure stepped into the light, which source was unseen, I suddenly realized who it was.

"Sideways!?" I screamed "how the hell did I get here!?

"calm down would you!" he scolded "we're in you're mind"

"in my mind? How?"

"I forced me and you inside" he walked closer to me only to find out the mech was only about 6 feet tall. This didn't surprise me much cause my mind tends to warp things out of scale, even in my dreams.

"What's with the chains?" I asked tugging at the snagged end.

"So you don't wake up unless I want you to"

"okay... so why I have you brought me here?"

"Thought you'd never ask" the grin returned as he spoke "we need to talk"

"about what?" I was getting slightly nervous, well more then I was five minuets ago.

"Have you ever felt a... power inside of you? Like there might be something lingering just on the brink of existence inside of you're mind?"

I though about that topic for a moment "come to think of it... yeah! but it's very vague. I'm not sure what it is but it feels... dark, evil"

From the way those ugly pink optics moved, I could tell his smile had widened "perhaps it might be something like this?" he lifted a palm to the air summoning a strange orb of purple light from the darkness. With the thing fully visible, he reached down to gently stroke it like one would a new born kitten.

"Do you know what this is my dear?" he asked me without looking up from the glowing ball.

"No. Damn. Clue" I dead panned.

"a spark, the life force of all transformers" he said barely above a whisper, and for once he seemed... sad.

"A spark? Inside of me?" I blinked.

"Yes... the spark of my bonded"

"You mean... you're WIFE!?"

"In human terms, yes" he nodded without emotion.

"But how? I'm not a transformer!"

"Fate works in strange ways I suppose" he sighed as he continued to run his fingers over the spark in a loving fashion.

"So... what are you going to do with me? Try and get that spark out?" I went from the point of being slightly nervous to just plan scared like a three year old who had accidentally watched The Blare Witch.

"You're body wouldn't survive the process" he said finally looking at me, his optics dimmed to a strange shade of hot pink "but I have another plan"

"which is?" I tilted my head to the side.

"I can not tell you much" he intoned "but let's just say that you'll be seeing things a whole lot differently from now on"

"oh come on! What kind of clue is _that!?_" I demanded of him "would you just tell me already!!"

"Enough!" Sideways growled, his optics flaring like molten lava "you shall learn to respect me child!" with that he snuffed and waved an arm in a random direction. The chains shattered like frozen glass, the shards vanishing the second they hit the 'floor'. Instead of waking up as predicted, I found myself falling into an invisible hole. My screams were lost to unrelenting silence as the opening quickly shrunk to a tiny pin prick then was squeezed out of existence as I fell further and further down to regions unknown.

Then was nothing... pure nothingness.

Nothing...

//flashback begins//

huddled up on a pile of dirty clothes that served as a sort of bed was a thin pale child, her body badly scared and stained in blood. Light seeped in through the wooden binds of the closet doors, cascading down into her tired blues eyes. Sleep was difficult due to the animalistic snoring of the man passed out on the couch just outside of her 'room'. The girl gave a small sniffle as she brushed some of her unruly blonde hair from her sore, tearful face.

As with yesterday and the day before that, her father (the man on the couch) had gone out with his friends to the local bar to blow almost all of his money on beer. Coming back only to beat her up before finally passing out of the couch just like now. This grueling routine had been going on since her mother and father split up.

That was about five and a half years ago.

How much more she could take, Tori did not know nor did she ever think about it. To her this was the ever lasting proses in which she lived her life. Her opinions on it were few and her thoughts of freedom _almost_ nonexistent. The girl could no longer remember the last time she was allowed to venture into the outside world. Tori was nought but a pet to the man she called father.

No, not even a pet but a _thing_...

'Just a thing...' these were the only words that had any real meaning to Tori other then her father's orders. Not much else came to mind except for some lingering traces of fear and sadness that her young psyche sometimes allowed through, but that was just about it.

Nope, nothing at all.

She really was just a thing, incapable of clear thought or anything that was considered to be free will. She was like a drone, a child's play toy programed to do a few tricks to entertain the owner then rot in a closet once said owner had gotten bored with it. In her case she was a pouching bag, a _very_ well used punching bag.

'Wait, a punching bag is a thing right?' The first real question to cross her tattered beaten mind in days, maybe weeks.

There wasn't much hope for a punching bag, she knew that much. If Tori had paid any attention, today would have been her tenth birthday. But like it mattered, everyday was the same to her. Nor did she care if it was a little different. Truthfully Tori hated herself, she wished her dad would just finish her off so the suffering could finally stop. Maybe then she would have a better life, where ever she ended up.

The sound of a bottle clinking on the wooden floor enticed a jerky flinch. With a strain the twenty something male lumbered off the couch groaning in pain, for the hangover had woken him up.

This wasn't good.

If he had a hangover so shortly after passing out then his anger would be greater then it usually is. Her prediction came true as the blonde haired green eyed sadist grabbed Old Bessy, his favorite hunting knife. Drunken cackling followed suit as a small amount of still human fear crept into the child's mostly empty head. However no physical reaction was made as the male shoved the door open, nearly ripping the thing off it's hinges with a loud bang.

"Heeeeeeeeeres Johnny!" her father laughed out right before he thrust gleaming blood tipped blade forward, right for her uncovered thigh...

//end nightmare began reality//

I bolted up from the hard metal table sweat dripping off of me in small rivers, instinctively groping at my leg, thankfully the scar had long since healed. My body was shivering but I felt like I had been sleeping in an oven. Kinda like when one is suffering from a bad fever. It took a while for me to get a hold of myself enough to stop shaking. With wide eyes I looked around the darkened room only to spring at least five feet in the air as an alarm went off.

Unlike the klaxon that went off when a mini-con was detected, this one had short sharp beeps that made my ears ring. Outside explosions blended in with shouts of pain and anger. I cringed as the noise brought back some really bad memories thinking I was going to start crying. In spite of myself, I gathered the courage to hop off the table (without breaking my legs). My sore back ached in protest but I ignored it and ventured on out the door then into the dim hall. Something vividly red and yellow roughly collided into the wall a few yards down the passageway yelling in agony. The mech's voice seemed to be no more then that of teenager's, and that in it's self was enough to make me nervous again.

I ran over, being careful not to attract the attention of the one who had thrown the yellow sports car into the wall in the first place. Then I noticed the red insignia proudly displayed on the right shoulder and drew my hand back just as Cyclonus charged in like a bull in a china shop.

"Z! You're up!" he cheered happily "we've got our selves an Autobot!"

'No shit' I though in dean pan tone then turned to my friend the old grin creping up on my face. The decepticon radiated with glee and set me on his shoulder. Just then the yellow one gave out a ragged choked gasp attempting to rise back on his feet only to be knocked down again by Cyclonus as said mech laughed cruelly.

A bit of guilt made it's self known in the pit of my belly in a sickening sort of way that would have made someone with a weak stomach blow chunks. I frowned looking at the mech below me in his sky blue optics dim as he panted heavily, hopelessly.

'So this is what I looked at from my dad's POV...' a tear almost escaped my left eye but I forced it back and made myself grin, even though it was blunt as a baseball bat.

"Any idea why he was here?" I asked my friend with a more controlled tone then my expression.

"No clue" was the half giggled answer before he gave, Hotshot I now remembered his name, another kick to the gut. At that point the sports car lost consciousness and crumpled to the floor, limper then an old rug.

Megatron and the others excluding Scavenger with the addition of a newly dubbed Decepticon Sideways ran in a moment later. Sideways gave me a (mind the pun) sideways glance then turned back to horn head, who was grinning in an oddly (and disturbingly) cat like manner.

"Good job Cyclonus, heh for once" the leader con half chuckled. The copter con grinned like a fool on drugs and sugar at the same time as Demolishor and Starscream dragged the stasis locked teen aged autobot to the holding cells.

With the commotion died down I stayed with my friend in order to avoid the purple motorcycle aka The Stalker. I don't know how or even why Sideways had switched sides, bit if was so he could be with me then there was _no fucking way_ I was going anywhere without an escort. Even if said escort was a complete and total idiot.

Scavenger had not shown up yet which was why I was aimlessly searching the base for him. Quit frankly I would rather stick with a huge bulldozer who could toss a full sized bus over half a mile then with an insane attack chopper, even if the latter was my best friend. I finally made up my mind to put the thought of that stalker aside and rescue the poor brightly painted bot that was currently being held captive.

With my goal firmly set in concrete, I headed for the badly illuminated parts of the base. Seeing as how the place seemed to be very under used it was no wonder why the thick air was forcing to pause so I could hack the dust up from my lungs every few minuets.

Kind of like the attic my dad sometimes threw me into if I didn't stop crying.

Soon enough the sound of heavy ragged breathing reached my ears and there, in the muggy musty light was the young mech laying flat on his back inside the dank cell. Most of the poor thing's chest had caved in (no doubt from being kicked one to many times) and both optics were cracked and leaking energon. The red liquid ran down his face and limbs before pooling up in a thin puddle on the dirty ground. Rarely felt sympathy touched my stone cold heart. I walked in through the bars.

"Can you hear me?" I whispered softly in what I though was his audio.

"W-who?" came the response in a strained pain filled gasp.

"I'm going to get you out" I replied simply but not in a confident way. Hotshot craned his neck around to look at me, optics flashing haphazardly. He seemed to only nod. Pointing over to the lock on the door I asked the yellow car to give me a lift. Hotshot hissed, his slashed leg sparking, then managed to get himself to stand. I quickly picked the lock and the door flung open with a loud metallic clang. Both of us winced at the sound, froze stiff for fear of being discovered.

Thankfully no one showed up so we carefully (in Hotshot's case painfully) crept through the halls and into the warp room. Hotshot tiredly set me down and the keypad, wasting no time I punched in the settings and watched quietly as the young mech crawled onto the main platform. He flashed me one of the most grateful smiles I had ever seen on anyone, human or not right before the machine hummed to life, whisking Hotshot back to where he should be.

Scavenger smiled as he hid in shadow looking as I hopped down and landed noiselessly.

'Bet Prime well be happy to hear about this' he though to himself with a hint of a chuckle. Then without even stirring the dust at his feet, the mech seeped into the background like he was never there to begin with.

* * *

Tori: Wheeee... Well thank you to any furture reviews, is pissing me off cause of all the damn e-mails it's been sending me cause of the RPG... Darn it to hell, at least I got this sucker done. I'll see about getting the other stories updated but seeing as how the brain blastes have been directed at this one... I'm thinking of deleting The Mountain though. Okay I'll shut now... 


	7. Ch7

Tori: WHOOOO!!! Finally I have it up!

Megatron: Damn it Tori! What took you so long!?

Tori: (glares) Hey! There's no rushing good ideas Megs!

Megatron: Whatever, lets just get on with the story already!

Tori: (zapps him with the StunGun of DOOM) There (grins) That should teach him. Also I would like to note that this chapter is loosly based off the episode Conspiracy, just so you guys know (walks off)

Megatron: I've reeeaally need to stop bad mouthing the autoress...(twitch)

Desclaimer: Tori does not own Transformers Armada, only the plot and her characters.

* * *

//nightmare phase//

A sharp cry was heard followed by a wet gurgling hiss. Splashes of warm rich blood decorated the walls like a sick and sadistic abstract. On the floor laid Zoe, covered in the same blood that was on the walls, _her_ blood. Cackling, the tall rigid man standing above her licked the flat of his favorite knife, dubbed Old Bessy.

"Mm, tasty" he giggled. Another person, a woman of about 20 years stepped from the shadows smirking at Zoe's father.

"May I have a try?" she asked stroking the drunk's cheek. He happily nodded and handed the knife to the woman but she reclined. Instead she grabbed the leg of a broken chair, the end of which was covered in deadly sharp splinters. The father grinned and watched his new girlfriend eagerly. She then raised the makeshift club above her head, quickly and violently bringing it down right on top of Zoe's soft blonde head. The young girl began to emit a yelp but the impact swiftly knocked her out. She crumpled to the floor in a bloody heap twitching slightly as frayed nerves sizzled in pain. The attackers cackled insanely, toasting each other with their beer bottles before taking a swig of the gross liquid. Once they drunk it half empty, the two poured the rest of the fowl stuff on Zoe's cut and bleeding head then lazily dropped the empty containers on the floor.

"Now the real fun can start, my dear" Zoe's father slurred. He slipped his hands under the hem of the slim woman's skirt making her yelp with joy.

"Ooh, you sure know how to please a girl!" she beamed lustfully as the man swept her off her spike heeled boots before carrying her into the bed room. The door slammed shut behind them leaving the child alone in the darkness of the living room, the only noises that she could hear were the pleasureful moans and girlish giggles coming from the closed room.

//nightmare end//

"Zoe...Zoe! Wake up!"

The sound of the concerned voice snapped me awake, and not a moment too soon. I sat up sorely and put a hand to my face feeling the tears staining my pale cheeks. Cyclonus' green optics hovered above me watching my every movement, they flashed with both worry and fear. Groaning I looked up and gave him a very bland stare.

"I'm...fine...I think"

He obviously didn't think so "yeah right! You look like you hadn't had any recharge in weeks!"

'No shit dumb ass' were my thoughts.

"just been having a lot of nightmares" is what I said in real life.

Blinking the chopper lowered himself to my level, his face was wide and bright with curiosity "what about?"

I couldn't help but to shudder "you don't want to know..." and I left it at that.

Shrugging, the flyer picked up my groggy little form and set me down on his shoulder. He then carried me over to his desk where a small sink and mirror had been installed a few day earlier. In the mirror, even if the lights were a little dim anyone with two eyes could see that I was one big mess.

My eyes were as dull as a rusted car and clearly defined by the deep purple bags underneath them. And to top it off my hair looked like a rat had used it as a nest, maybe even eaten a few strands while it was at it. Taking a warm towel from the rack sitting next to me I wetted down my dry pink lips then my deathly white cheeks to clean off the grey streaks of dried salty residue. Glaring lazily at the cloth I noticed it came back slightly yellow from the build up of oil on my face from not washing it in so long.

I tossed the soiled towel away in disgust before striding back to the edge of the desk where Cyclonus was waiting. Although he remained silent I know just from his expression that he must have been quiet worried.

Shouting rang out from the throne room, crashes and screaming following suit as the attacker smashed the attacked into something hard.

Wincing I took a peek around the corner to find that Megatron had practically embedded a dark red seeker into the nearest wall. The wounded jet growled right back in a low scratchy voice and flew from the hole with the Star Saber held high and at the ready. Grinning slightly, the dark tank fired and knocked the sword out of Starscream's hands with a well placed (and lucky) shot.

"Lost again my dear Starscream" Megatron chuckled mirthlessly, his grin turning into a smirk. Defiant as ever, the seeker simply spat out a curse harsh enough to put the Devil in his place. At that moment Megatron dashed forward slashing the jet's silver face with a blade jutting out of his palm. Glaring at the now stasis locked vice commander the tyrant stormed off leaving Starscream where he fell.

Behind me Cyclonus gulped and tugged on my shirt to warn me that we should be going now. I really wanted to protest, knowing exactly what poor Starscream was going through but common sense advised me that it was not a very wise thing to do. I followed reluctantly.

For a few minuets me and Cyclonus walked around aimlessly since neither of us had anything better to do. Once we rounded a bend however, Demolishor called over the fellow decepticon so the chopper could look at something Demo had for him. With a cheery wave, Cyclonus flounced off randomly poking Demolishor in the side of the head before disappearing inside a dark room. That left me alone yet again, but at least I was free to look around the base as I wished without my friend to bug. Not that there was much to see anyways, but still.

So all I did was wonder for a while since needed to clear my head of the bad memories that flooded my head from both the recent dream and from the earlier events. Rubbing my sore temples, I went ahead and decided sit down on a pile of old junk in some rusted old room to began my thinking in (semi) peace. I remembered the day I met Shaytan and how he had helped me change my life. Why I had left was still a mystery even to me but for some reason it wasn't as much of a bother as it should have. I guess it really doesn't matter now that I was with the Decepticons, but as for Sideways think I would have rather stayed at my dad's house...

'okay' I cringed inwardly 'maybe not THAT bad...'

Sighing I finally got up and boringly explored the dark sectors once more until I suddenly bumped into something green, metallic and very large.

"Hey kid" Scavenger looked down at me with a small but friendly smile.

I didn't reply, instead I sauntered away from him as if I was sulking over something. This caused the bulldozer to blink slightly as he watched me retreat back into the dusty shadows, carefully observing my swaggering gate. With a heavy and very old sounding moan Scavenger plodded off again.

Without even realizing it I had ended up back in the throne room. A quick but light impact on my forehead made me stop dead in my tracks and brake off from my idle daydreaming. The wall as I thought it was, was not a diffused greyish color but crimson red and smooth with a huge gash just to the left of where I was.

"Starscream?" it was a stupid question really since it couldn't be anything else. The seeker didn't move an inch, he was still very much unconscious and bleeding by the gallons. Guessing it was best to wake the poor guy up I got my bearings straight. Currently I was standing on the space where his left wing should have been if it where still attached to his body. The sword that made up the missing wing was only a few feet away to my right. It was stabbed into the floor half way up to the middle of the blade. So that would mean I right by his chest. With that I made one ungraceful hop after another until I was sitting haphazardly on the oval dome of his cockpit.

"Hey Screamer" I poked one of the intake vents on his shoulders with my foot. No answer but not for long "SCREAMER!!!"

BANG!!

The jet did indeed wake up, now sporting a rather large dent in his helmet from banging it on an oddly positioned chunk of metal sticking out of the wall behind him. When he did so the sudden shifting of the 'floor' threw me back and off of his chest so that I went tumbling down his nose cone before finally landing between the mech's legs. Thankfully my strong back took the brunt of the fall so I wasn't in any kind of pain. But the piercing glare that moved in to block the overhead light quickly changed that.

"Don'thurtme!" I yelped fearfully, immediately remembering that scowl was the same one my dad would give me if I was late in buying him beer.

"You better be!" the seeker grated roughly as he began shuffling to his feet, using his sword as a walking stick to aid him. He was shaking badly though, which made it difficult. So shaky in fact that I had to roll off to the side to avoid being stepped on. By the time I cleared the 'squish' zone, Starscream was already long gone down the hallway. Quit fast considering his injuries.

"Wait!" I never got the chance to run after him because right at that moment the glaringly loud klaxon boomed around the base like Megatron having a temper tantrum.

"Damn it all to hell..." I groaned as I bent halfway over in defeat feeling that my luck was indeed going bad. I straightened out and started to head for the warp room where the others would be.

Sideways lurked in the dark (unknown to me of course) a smooth look playing across his mouthless face. Like candle wax the cycle melted into the floor before reappearing by the platform a few seconds later just as Megatron entered the room.

---------------------------

Five hundred miles away in a cold little valley late in the winter wet season a bot shivered as the damp chilly air slithered under his armor stinging the temperature sensitive receptors that laid there. Hotshot revved his engines once more, hoping too warm them up a little but to no use. He was not in the mental condition to toil with the weather right now anyways. The defeat he had been dealt was a low blow to his ego. Such things he could not simply ignore. His body _still_ ached from having only just recently been repaired. Red Alert had instructed him that it was for his best interest to sit this battle out, but good old stubborn Hotshot demanded that he get his much wanted revenge on Sideways. The betrayal was what chilled the yellow sports car and not the wind, a chill that can not be warmed by any normal means.

So on he drove ignoring any orders Optimus gave him to stay put. His pride was on the line, the mini-con could wait.

'Besides' he thought 'even if I don't get Sideways back, I could at least thank that human property for saving my sorry skid plate'.

------------------------------------

"Slagging rookie-OW!" the branch that added a few more not-so-pretty scratches to his face was shoved aside so violently that the limb almost broke in two. Smokescreen's minicon yet out a shrill beep in surprise as the same branch swept past his head. The tiny fork lift then added a dent to accent to scratches, and his partner finally calmed down.

"Sorry little buddy. I'm just frustrated at how ignorant Hotshot has been since he got the slag beaten out of him...not that I blame him or anything"

"Get over it" Liftor huffed as he shrugged a tire then continued to use the crane's shoulder as a lazy boy. This made a vain like fuel line bulge out of Smokescreen's fore head...

Right before an oak branch chose it's moment to swing up at him like a whip, batting the dark blue minicon off the crane's shoulder and into a hole in the trunk that just so happened to be the exact same size and shape as his big noggin.

As the orange construction vehicle burst out laughing, a family of woodpeckers disturbed by the sudden intrusion began to squawk and peck furiously at Liftor's head, the riot of beaks making a rather hilarious _clank_ _clank clank_ noise every time they hit metal.

Smokescreen's hardy laughter was soon joined by a bird like cackle that could have only come from one person. The crane halted his humor just before a bright purple laser blew apart the tree his partner was lodged in. Somehow Liftor (and the woodpeckers, much to the minicon's dismay) managed to come out unharmed and landed dazed and confused in the autobot's hand. The birds flew off in a hurry.

The wind blast from the attack chopper's rotors dashed the mist to the side revealing the hovering airborne visage of the off white and yellow decepticon.

"Cylonus!"

"That's my name don't wear it out!" he quickly backed up his introduction with a few good shots of laser fire. All of which Smokescreen dodged but the forest was forced to pay the price. Thankfully for him, unlike last time the woods were still wet from the afternoon rain storm and the chances of an inferno starting up were slim. But still, damage was damage and Smokescreen had to lead Cyclonus away into the foot hills before the psycho chopped down another tree. As he ran to the west another shot clipped his ankle making the older bot land face down just short of reaching his goal.

Without needing to be ordered, Liftor transformed and powerlinked to Smokescreen's crane arm. As the cannon came popping out, the autobot flipped over onto his back and fired in mid spin. The resulting burst of energy sheared off the chopper's blades like they were tin foil. Cyclonus screeched like a wounded hawk and dropped were he hung into the dense canopy, disappearing from sight.

Proudly the veteran warrior loosed a proud chuckle as his partner unlatched from his shoulder and played 'shoot the woodpecker' with is own gun.

"He should have seen that one coming" I shook my head watching from the top of the cliff where Scavenger was standing beside me. Indeed Cyclonus should really look before he fires, or at least _aim _for once.

The bulldozer said nothing, his optics sharp and narrowed but showing no emotion. He was looking off to the side by the other half of the forest that ended in a lightly tree strewn canyon. Now that I had followed his gaze I could see a small yellow rectangle racing along the edge of a path made by an out cropping of rocks. A few meters behind him was an even smaller figure, a blurry mixture of purple and black zipping in and out of view as the pursuer darted into cover and out once more.

"Sideways" hairs at the back of neck prickled just as a cat's would as I hissed his name.

"Come" was the gruff answer.

Before I could respond Scavenger had transformed and pulled up in front of me, his door swung wide open. I got in and was suddenly going down the mountain at was felt like 100 mph. How in the living hell a bulldozer could do that and not flip over or get the treads shredded off by the sharp ledges was beyond me. It was certainly not a luxury ride either. By the time we had hit the bottom I went from being securely strapped into the big purple seat to being completely upside down with my face flat on the floor boards.

"In a hurry I see" only a few of the words were actually words since most of it had been muffled by solid rubber and metal.

"Get out" my ride ordered before moving the stick shift (the thing was jabbing me in the thigh because it was what I was leaning on to stay in this posture) making me to go flopping over to the side and out the open hatch. I came to an abrupt halt on the wet dirty grass. I was just about to express my displeasure when a huge and black red foot came crashing down a few inches from my the end of my nose. Above me Scavenger gave a surprised grunt as Starscream came within mere feet from cleaving his neck in two.

"Oh, it's just you" I heard the jet's spiteful voice growl. A whoosh of air sounded as he redirected his swinging strike to the side so that it crashed into a tree and not a helmet. This whole time I was painfully frozen in a half twist with my feet perched on my head in the position I had landed in when I was shoved out of the dozer's cab. Now as the red and black foot moved away my body unwound it's self and came to rest on my stomach.

'What fucking nice day this has been so far' I sat up slowly then snorted and hacked a loogie on a tiny ladybug as she peacefully ate her meal under a happy white flower. Now her food was ruined and covered in spit. Oh joy.

"What's the matter Hotshot? Still sore from being beaten!?" the voice that laughed pulled up along side of a speeding yellow sports car and mockingly tapped on the tinted passenger window. In anger the autobot jerked to the left, his side door slamming into Sideways' leg. The cycle shouted in agony as his bike careened wildly. With his hands firm on the steering bar, the decepticon managed to regain control of his 'body' before picking up even more speed. Hotshot didn't see it coming when the purple cycle suddenly darted in front of him then slammed on the brakes. The yellow bot swerved hard to avoid a collision and nearly ended up hitting a tree in the process. By the time he recovered the sound of the cycle's running motors had been consumed by the thick fog. Frustration won out over logic as Hotshot put the petal to the metal and climbed back onto the trail with his wheels spinning as fast as they could go.

Unfortunately for him a huge green leg blocked his path.

I sat perched on Scavenger's shoulder as Hotshot transformed and looked up at the much older mech.

"You've still got a lot to learn Hotshot" informed the bulldozer.

"you think so? Well how about this!?" before I knew it the bot had whipped out his gun with no regard to me and squeezed off three bullets at the merc's head. Holding on with all my life I heard the sound and felt the burning heat of the lasers as Scavenger sidestepped all of them in rapid succession.

Taken aback at the agility of his foe, the young mech leaped away to avoid a getting a hard punch to the face. This brought him directly in front of Scavenger, with me still clinging to the former's shoulder like a starved leech. Expecting another blow Hotshot came to a rough stop and braced himself...but the merc made no move to hurt him. Perplexed the young bot stood up and gazed at the hired aid with a look of confusion. Scavenger only laughed and turned to leave like nothing had ever happened.

In the distance a chorus of battle cries echoed to and fro though the valley. Even though it was very hard for me to pin point the location it was easy for the transformer. I could tell this because

Scavenger wasted no time in ducking below the tops of the trees to sneak up on the main conflict.

I leaned over and whispered in his audio "what the hell is going on?"

All I got as an answer was a big hand plucking me off the owner's shoulder which then set me down on the ground "stay here" he ordered.

I didn't question him as always, but I sure was pissed off. As it turns out it was a good thing that I was hidden because I quickly spotted an annoying orange speck flying against the white grey sky. Laserbeak's camera snout swerved in towards Megatron's direction just as he was sent back into a group of old oaks that somehow resisted their urge to bend over and break when the tank smashed into them. As he paused to catch his breath something small and white popped out of a panel on his leg and landed a few yards away from me. Diving into a thorn bush I watched as Leader-1 unfolded from his alt mode and gained his bearings. This took only a few short seconds before the head minicon ran up a low hill that overlooked the general area of the battle. Spying on the minicon was not easy and five times I was almost seen but finally I found a good hiding place and stayed there. Now it seemed, Leader-1 was waiting for something, an order from his master no doubt. That chance soon came and the mini battle truck transformed yet again and fired at an angular form screened in by the mist.

He hit home, the hidden target cringed and held what looked to be an arm. All at once that same form came charging forward in our direction with a cry of anger. The white minicon (and me) did well in running off to the side to avoid becoming part of the ground.

_Swaving!_

The crisp noise cut through all other sounds like a hot knife through butter. As the dust parted a red jet stared in awe as his leader was brought down by his own sword. Behind the larger tank a very startled Demolishor whimpered dumbly as Megatron groaned ,his hand held over the stump where his shoulder tread should have been. Leader-1 was long gone but I had a good idea where he might have gone off too.

My answer was quickly confirmed as I scrambled up a pine tree like a squirrel and watched the minicon drive up his master's leg and flipped back into his calf armor. Thundering footsteps shook the sturdy perch but I had no need to look and see who it was. Scavenger growled his disapproval as much as I did, oblivious to the shouts of the other decepticons as they rushed in to help their precious leader. Poor Starscream stood there, sword threatening to fall from his finger tips as he trembled. Disbelief scarred his face and his audios were forced at full power to listen as his comrades condemned him to the Pit for being so impulsive.

"It's not his fault you basterds!" I kept on snarling, volume raising every time I repeated the sentence. Before I got loud enough to be heard, the merc carefully put his finger to my lips effectively sealing them shut.

As I watched in awkward silence, Megatron got up and looked Starscream right in the optic. Demolishor, who was helping his boss to his feet looked like he was about ready to start breaking out into tears.

'What a wimp!' I though, both bitter and angry at the same time. The seeker finally dropped the Star Saber and slowly back up into another tree. He gapped in horror as his leader took up the fallen blade and muttered weakly to his 2nd in command "you're too reckless to posses this weapon Starscream. Only I have the power control it. Not _you_"

those words stung Starscream worse then any punch Megatron could ever throw at him. Devastated, Starscream pawed at his wing blade, disparate for it's comforting red glow as the larger of the two tanks stood at his full height and with Star Saber firmly in hand he announced "this battle is _not_ over! Decepticons attack!"

A crimson beam flew past Scavenger at that very moment and struck the tree I stood on. The branch that I was holding onto for support went careening wildly off the truck and I was taken with it. Screaming in fear of being killed I prayed a little prayer. A huge pair of metallic hands shot under me, breaking my decent before I cracked my skull, thank god.

The bulldozer who rescued me took a brief moment to put me down on the ground before he bolted back into the forest at a pace I didn't think he was capable of. Somehow the green and

purple mech must have done something because the brewing battle was quickly being taken further and further away from my location.

Once the roaring of laser fire and battle cries died down I found myself grateful for the now quiet atmosphere. I limped away from the splintered wood that had once been a rather tall tree and stopped at the edge of the clearing. There Starscream sat with his skid plate sunk deep into the moist earth as he quietly brooded. Without a single care for my own life I jumped up on his knee to rub the armored cap in a soothing manner. Oddly enough the red jet seemed to realize that I was not here to mock him for he allowed me to continue doing this. Either that or Screamer was too out of it to notice me. One way or another I knew what he was going through, I knew _just_ what it felt like to be humiliated in public. Sure it was bad and it wore on you're ego for a long while but it was not something that can't be forgotten in time. I for one just hoped that maybe Screamer might take this into consideration.

A huge explosion scared me badly enough to make me fall backwards off his leg. In that same instant the con flyer had regained his senses and shot up off the ground. For the _third_ time today the seeker was inches away from turning me into a meat pie...

At the source of the commotion over half a mile away, the autobot medic Red Alert clung to the cliff face like a vice grip. The explosion form before had just about jostled him loose. Seeing as how high up he was, the fall would have surly put him in danger. However the medical bot managed to held on, but he was not the only one who had almost been tossed from the rocky surface.

About ten or more feet above his head was a tiny neon gold plate of alloy, a minicon.

Or more correctly, a piece of the Skyboom Shield.

It was lodged in fairly loosely under an over hang but only enough for it stay there without falling. Now if only Red Alert could inch his way up there to get it. The bad thing was, he was certainly not a robot built for climbing. The gun on his left arm meant that he had just one hand to the work with. Sure the blaster came with a grappling attachment, but it was not a very good one.

Another streak of lavender zipped by his head and slammed into the incline to his left. The resulting aftermath sent a miniature earthquake traveling up the weakened slope, a small fissure in it's wake. Much to the medic's horror the crack split open the minicon's rocky casing, which caused said plate of colored metal to fall free before it hit him squarely in the visor before bouncing off his helmet. Blinking sorely he watched as it went tumbling down into the squabbling knot of various transformers locked in close quarters combat. With a heavy and aspirated sigh the ambulance unclinched his only fist, allowing gravity to take him to his needed destination.

As Scavenger wrestled effortlessly with the orange crane bot his keen optics were quick to spot a bright glowing object descend from somewhere up in the low hanging cloud cover then clatter to the ground just a few feet from his side. However Smokescreen took notice of it also before he plunged a rounded kneecap into the bulldozer's broad stomach. It only stunned him for the moment but it had worked, giving Red Alert the chance to scoop it up as fast as he could after he impacted dirt. The crane was then swept off his feet with a vast swooping arm. The owner of the arm then came charging like a mad bull at the medic who did his best to dive out of the way.

But it was useless, Scavenger tackled him to the ground with a force that would had bowled over a small skyscraper. With a straggled gasp Red found himself crashing into the cliff side, minicon flying from his hand. When the green construction vehicle came to a full stop he took the library of picking up the dropped panel.

Elsewhere a strong red semi quarreled with an already injured Megatron. Strangely though, the wound dealt to him was a lot less severe then it looked. Now powerlinked to Leader-1 the purple, horn headed decepticon swung his fusion cannon forward with a swift motion and fired at Optimus. While seemingly bulky, his opponent easily sidestepped it and moved in to deliver a right hook to Megatron's abdomen. His fist hit home causing the receiver to slouch over in pain, groaning. This was the opportunity Prime had been looking for, so without hesitation the semi kneed his long time rival in the gut a second time. The tank buckled over and stayed down. With a satisfied smile the autobot commander headed east in search of his men, but what he ran into was not another mechanism but me.

Giving a started shout I spun around doing my best to keep from falling off the tree (again) as I stared up at Prime for the first time (I was knocked out cold when he first met me).

He regarded me with calm cool optics, who's natural gentleness made me almost gag.

"what do you want!?" I demanded, not really sounding threatening at all.

He was about to answer when a violent rustling alerted both of us to Scavenger's approach. Behind Optimus the thought to be fallen Megatron heaved himself on stable footing. Without seeming to notice Prime, Scavenger held up the captured panel in his right hand to show it to his 'leader'. He then reached over and plucked me from the ground once more as Megatron declared victory and warped out.

Back at the base the gathered troops (minus me) gazed almost loving at the newly acquired minicons. The one Scavenger had confiscated was placed onto a stand beside Megatron's throne. While the rest of the decepticons celebrated their win, I was in mine and Cyclonus' shared room scowling cruelly at the deep dark bruises I now had lining my arms and belly. That fake mercenary would pay because not only was he the reason for my injuries but also for the fact that said bruises had somehow made my old scars reappear. For so many years I waited for those stupid things to go away and now they are made _worse_ by this...cold hearted jerk!

In my rage I pounded a small fist into the mirror in front of me, not caring even a little bit as the shards tattered my already beat up jacket. Taking one of the pieces I shoved back the sleeve of my right arm (the less scarred up one) and held the makeshift blade against my wrist. I didn't hesitate as I drew aside it fast and swift, wincing only a tiny amount as it broke the skin and fresh blood leaked from the wound. With my other hand I squeezed the sides of the cut to maximized the flow of blood. Soon my whole arm became red and sticky with the stuff, and so was the front of my shirt.

After about a minute or so I tore a strip from my clothing and used up to bandage up the slit wrist. As I did so, the all too familiar booming of robot footfalls made me hurry my pace. Since I was too caught up in changing into a clean shirt I had neglected the knowledge of getting to know who was entering the room. Only once I had shoved a light brown sweat shirt on did I see who it was. Scavenger walked over to me, a serious look on his face.

"Fuck off" I snarled at him, my teeth bared. He ignored me utterly and his stern expression melted away into his typical cocky smirk. Confused like no tomorrow I was taken by surprise as he enveloped me in a huge purple hand. Once the bulldozer had a hold of me he exited the room. I by no means was going to keep quiet. I flailed, I struggled and I cursed in both english _and_ cybertronian in a weak attempt at escaping from my captor. Even though I knew very well that it was only wasting my energy, I still ranted on and on until Scavenger paused inside the warp room. He didn't need to tell me why he was doing there, I could easily guess the reason and get it correct.

"Oh god nooo" I murmured in pure horror and shock. Pride got in the way, however and blocked out the tears that were about to start sprouting from eyes.

'No way are you going to act like a fucking pussy!' a voice in my head commanded 'you've got to suck it up and be woman! Face you're fears or you'll get left in the dark like you used to back _then!_'

Obeying the id, I swallowed my fears and watched in stunned silence as the bulldozer activated the control pad then stepped up onto the platform. The familiar sensation of the warp gate activating made my already sore head start spinning but thankfully it only lasted for a moment or two. When I next opened my eyes I saw that we had appeared out in the middle of some dessert. Already the dry air began to sting at the inside of my nose, making me sneeze. For the most part I was just too distracted and had forgotten about being mad for the time being. Scavenger transformed with me still in his hand. The feeling this produced was similar to warping mixed in with riding a roller coaster at Bush Gardens called the Montu and trying to stand still one a boat during a raging hurricane. That was probably the closest I've ever come to barfing my guts out without actually doing it.

Once again I was forcefully strapped into the dozer's cockpit. Now that the sick to my stomach feeling was gone I could now concentrate on giving my kidnapper Hell...again.

"You!" I screamed pointing a finger at the lime green dashboard "you are a slagging pile of rusted parts that had been dipped in shit!"

Inwardly, the soon to be autobot cringed. While he was not yet well acquainted with the harsher words of the human language, Scavenger still understood enough of it to be offended. He hid this well though and continued to drive on like I hadn't said a thing.

"LISTEN TO ME DAMN IT!!" I screeched, grabbing a hold of some of the controls and jerking them around in anger as if I was trying to snap them in half. I soon found out that even his internals were just as well armored as the rest of him. Finally I gave up and flopped back against the seat in defeat.

It was hopeless, I realized. Even if I ranted until my throat ran dry I still doubted that he would hear me out. And I certainly could _not_ tell him about my scars as a way of making him pity me. Can't quit say I blame him though. He's just following orders after all. At last the green dozer came to a halt at the entrance to what seemed to be a tall and narrow cave. Again, he switched to robot mode and firmly palmed me but not so hard that I was hurt.

"Giving up I see" he said to me. I didn't say anything in return.

A rumbling sound suddenly creped out of the wide threshold as the cave grew in size to admit it's newest member into the base it hit with in. Looking down at me one more time he was soon welcomed by Optimus. Around the commander were his troop all with cautious expressions. Waving this off the mech took hold of his leaders greeting hand and shook it.

"I've returned to the autobots with the girl, just as we planned" he nodded.

"Is she okay?" asked the semi as he let go of the other's palm. As usual I didn't say a thing and this seemed to worry the red bot a little bit.

"We better put her somewhere, where the kids can't harass her...or vic versa" the older mech whispered to the slightly younger one. Behind them the rest of the bots present talked amongst themselfs as if they doubted the mercenary. Which as it turns out was true.

"I'm sorry we had to take you away from the decepticons" Optimus said gently as the others left the room "but as you can see, humans like you don't belong with us"

"I don't belong anywhere else!" I bit right at him.

"Everyone belongs somewhere, but you're place is not with them"

"yes it was! For once I was actually happy and you just took me from them!"

"Listen" Scavenger reasoned "you need to be taken better care of or else you're health would have gotten dangerously low"

"my health was already low! Both mentally _and_ physically" I replied in a slightly insane tone "you know what, since you guys can't force me to do what I want I'm just going to leave"

with that I about faced and marched away but a yellow minicon jumped out from around Prime's leg and cut me off.

Now I was pissed.

In a single drop kick maneuver Sparkplug fell over on his knees as I bolted past him as fast as I could manage without hurting myself. Ignoring the desperate calls of reason down the hall I took a left but stopped abruptly as I came to a dead end. Nothing was there to help me, no loose piping, no air vent to escape into. Once again I was cornered, scared and afraid beyond my limits. I faintly even registered the approach of the two autobot before my body became swallowed up the endless black void of my tortured mind...

* * *

Tori: (flopps over) Shoot, that was a looong chapter...

Sideways: (blinks) I thought you said that I had a bigger part?

Tori: You do, but in later chapters

Sideways: (growls)

Tori: If you're going to complain then I'm sticking you with the job of thanking my readers

Sideways: But I...

Tori: NOW!!!

Sideways: Okay! Okay! (sighs) Tori would like to thank all of her readers and she also apoligizes for any errors as far as grammar and spelling goes

Tori: Now that wasn't so bad now was it?

Sideways: Hmph!


	8. Ch8

Tori: ZOMG!!! I'm soooooo sorry for being sooo laate!! (bawls)

Megatron: (nudges her with his foot) Stop crying you wimpy fleshling!

Tori: (bites his foot)

Megatron: OW!!!

Desclaimer: I do NOT own Transformer, only my chacaters and the plot.

* * *

"Zoe! where's Zoe!?" came a very panicked voice from a very panicked helicopter. The dark lord in the corner rubbed his optics in an attempt to resist the urge to blast Cyclonus into the sun. And it wasn't going get better any time soon. It had been almost 10 hours since the autobots kidnaped me. That was more then enough time for the cons to figure out I was gone. The thing is, neither of them (that is the ones who actually cared) knew where I was. Considering Scavenger's sudden departure, Cyclonus had at first suspected him and was going to sneak over to the warp gate to get me back. But after some _very_ strict words from Sideways, he had changed his opinion. Whither or not he actually believed the ninja cycle was a whole other matter. One that he didn't care to think about right now.

Finally Megatron snapped. In a brilliant explosion of vibrant purples, Cyclonus was once again stuck half way into the wall of the throne room right next to about five other holes of similar size and shape. At least this time the copter bot had the brains to wait until his leader left the room before prying himself out of his face print. He was used it by now and so the copter sustained little damage other then a few unsightly dents in his rear end. Ignoring those, the mopping con swaggered his way down the hall and into his quarters. Cyclonus had noticed the broken mirror but he paid it no heed. As far as he knew it could have been broken because it was just badly made. But what he _didn't_ see was the small amount of blood still clinging to a decent sized shard among the many more that littered his desk.

Sighing is a sad and pitiful manner, the flyer pulled himself up onto his recharge bed. All he needed right now was a good long nap. Five seconds later his snoring was so loud that Megs was starting to get annoyed by it...again.

Outside the base a deep red shadow tightly gripped his weapon and slashed at the crumbling rocks before him. They cracked apart into thousands of identical pieces before the heat of the sword evaporated them. Not in the least bit satisfied Starscream spun around in mid air swinging his saber down cleaving a boulder twice his height in twine. As the two halves fell apart from each other he wasted no time in carving up the rest until his wings were showered in a fine grey powder.

Growling, Starscream thrust his blade into the ground out of frustration before letting it go. The warm glow of the weapon faded as it's owner sat down beside it. As it was the seeker had his own myriad of troubling thoughts to deal with. He faintly registered the sound of a large gun shot going off some distance behind him but he paid no attention to it. With optics dim, the winged vice commander retreated into a mental state similar to meditation. Now that he was alone with his issues, Starscream could finally get them sorted out.

To start things off he was sure as slag angry about losing his minicon weapon. Such power he had felt from the Star Saber when he had held it for all those precious moments, only to have it torn away from him and for a completely ridiculous reason none the less! Once again the crimson had to force himself to calm down. But no matter how hard he tried there was always a dull sizzling in his fuel lines. But there was something else bothering him...he just couldn't put his finger on it. Searching deeper into his mind Starscream began to see a faded image beginning to weave itself in front of his mind's eye. Soon the fibers of memory formed into a visible picture. As soon as he saw the long blonde hair he waved it off with haste. Now he _really_ needed to get his head on straight.

With a mix between a confused and frustrated expression, Starscream shuffled out of the crater, grabbing his sword along the way. The big black shape of the base held so much dread for him that he was almost afraid to go near it. Ebony hands clinched the silver handle in a nervous fashion, obviously remembering who resided with in the structure like a terrible king and he himself being the unworthy servant who got blamed for all faults of the tyrant's rule. Fear aside Starscream really had no other choice but to go back in and at least _try_ to tolerate Megatron's presents. After a good long while the seeker put one foot in front of the other, slowly but surly finding his way back home to that sorry place.

In the High Desert, hidden with in the confines of a red rock mountain existed a ship of mammoth proportions. This was the makeshift HQ that belonged to the so called 'all for one' Autobots. But what did it really matter, noone except for a select few even knew of their existence here on Earth. Those who did know were nothing more then a few middle school brats who haven't even hit puberty yet. Well that is except for me. Currently I was still out cold from having fainted around five hours ago, due to stress of course. Maybe Scavenger was right and I was over doing it. But there was one good thing about being unconscious was the fact that I wasn't having any nightmares...Now wait a second...do people have dreams when their knocked out, or just when their asleep? Feh. Like I give a rat's ass anyways.

Just outside of the med bay where I was being held was a group of overly worried bots and three-no five annoying humans plus three minicons. The one called Red Alert was the bot in charge of taking care of me. Somehow the medic found a thick quilt to cover me up so that the cold hard table didn't feel so uncomfortable. Surprisingly enough the ambulance had managed to figure out quit a bit about us human in the reasonably short time since they landed here. He was no expert by far but the autobot did know enough to treat me without having to send me to a human doctor. I considered this to but lucky because there was no way I would be able to hide my scars that way.

"Longarm bring me that thermometer" he asked of his partner as he turned to him.

The blue and orange minicon replied by handing him the clear glass tube and using it to check my temperature. Red Alert's ruby tinted visor lit up in shock as the marker went up past 100. It took a few seconds but the gauge finally stopped at 104. Longarm took the thing from my mouth and looked up at his fellow medic.

"Get her some ice. Now"

The smaller of the two nodded stiffly, hopped off the table, climbed up the fridge where a pack of freezable blue gel was waiting and placed it carefully on my fore head. The stuff suddenly made it's self know to me when the stingingly cold plastic jolted me awake. Behind the two bots the other transformers present were very taken aback at how quickly I had came around despite the fact that I was near comatose just a few minuets ago.

With out hesitating Optimus carefully pushed his way past his troops and entered the med bay. My blurry eyes could just barely make out his large red, blue and silver form walking up to me his expression to unclear for me to read because of the mask but I imagined it must have been very concerned.

"Are you okay?" he asked gently.

As per usual I opened my mouth and uttered a couple of highly unflattering words in his native language (the ones Cyc had taught me). True, Cybertronian was not meant for human vocal chords but I still got my point across with out a hitch. Even with my bad eyes I could easily see his optics widen considerably. At this point I couldn't resist the urge to giggle up a storm and the confused looks on medic's faces were not helping at all.

Before I knew it I was cracking up so badly my ribs were getting sore. Every look that was cast my way only made me laugh harder and harder until tears welt up under my eye lids. Eventually I was able to regain some composure so I could sit up and look at the gathered bots with a throughly amused grin.

"To answer you're question Big Red, I've never felt better in my whole life!" I beamed at him cheerily with an insane note laying just beneath the surface. To my left, the medic bot opened and closed his mouth several times but was too dumbfounded to said anything.

This made me burst out into a whole new fit of cackling that would have made my dear friend Cyclonus jealous. It wasn't my fault that way they stared at me with those idiotic expressions on their faces was so damn funny! But while in my moment of insanity a plan was cooking up in the depths of my mind. One that was so impulsive and out of character that it just _had_ to work!

When they least expected it I jumped to my feet like my legs were spring loaded. A slit second later I scurried over and snagged the sharp (human sized) scalpel that was randomly laying at the edge of the table. One leap was all it took for me cover the distance between myself and the end of the counter. Behind me I could hear the scrambling of metallic feet as the two autobots rushed in to catch me before I hit the ground. Pulling off a fast mid air back flip I tumbled away from those prying fingers then throwing myself upright just before I landed on the floor. Now people, keep in mind that the table was a good ten feet from top to bottom at the least. Although for some strange and lucky reason my bare feet took the fall with out even a single tinge of pain to be felt.

I paused only for a few seconds to laugh myself silly once more before I was on the move again. Thankfully Optimus had left the door ajar when he came in so that's where I started heading. Palming the knife I had stolen, I readied it in my hand and jumped over the overly huge threshold. The first thing I saw once I was free from the room was that brunet girl. All it took was a one little glance for me to tell that she was complete and utter snob. Already it was making me sick just to look at her. Anger boiled up in my veins like molten lava prompting me to turn on a dime and dash straight at her with blade raised high and mighty.

The moment right before she fell backwards onto the floor screaming her dumb little head off filled me with pure joy. My body collided with her's and we both went sprawling on the floor with me holding her down as hard as I could. Also I would like to point out the look of terror on the blonde boy's face. He must have had feelings for this girl or else he wouldn't have did what he did next so quickly and desperately. In a flash the boy thrust his arm out and caught my wrist just as I was about to make the killing blow.

Underneath me the girl breathed a sigh of relive forgetting that her life was in my hands for the moment. Maybe I would have cackled if I didn't have a hand digging into my arm but I did manage a chuckle. Again my actions were put on autopilot and I simply let my limbs do what they wanted to do. And what they wanted was that brat's blood, both of them.

Silver shimmered in the blaring white of the overhead lights as cries sharp, fearful and filled of agony where heard through out the command center. Now I was being lifted off the floor by the three minicons whom had shifted and fused into a larger robot in time to save their masters. This new warrior know as Perceptor restrained me as Rad whipped the blood from his face and helped a trembling Alexis to her feet. The girl had been far to stunned by the events and ended up back on her rear anyways.

I felt the combined trio wiggle the red tipped dagger from my grasp but I was just too busy laughing my head off yet again to notice it.

"S-she's crazy!" Fred screeched as he and his friend Billy shivered and shook like a naked man in the arctic. Rad growled something horsy as he was held back by one of the bots. He struggled hard against Smokescreen's hand, limbs flailing wildly and voice screaming in unrelenting anger. All because I had attempted to hurt that little snob of a girl. What a joy those two were! Now I'm starting to understand why my dad liked torturing me so much. I mean if that's how I must have looked then it's no wonder why he took such pleasure in it.

Right then just as I was finished with that though a horrible piercing sensation darted through me like a lightning bolt shredding the night sky. I ended up biting my lip so hard it bleed but it did well to cut off the shout forcing it's way through my lungs. While this was going on, Perceptor beeped in the weird binary code of his race to someone. The person he was talking to was Optimus, who had been watching the whole incident in stunned silence. Whatever the minicon combo said snapped him out of it and the red leader nodded to him sadly. Of course I had no idea what was going because the pain in my head had increased ten fold by the time Perceptor started walking off with my body still held tightly in his arms. I was happy to note that I must be doing a good job at masking the pain due the fact the none of the autobots nor minicons seemed to notice.

Eventually my captor reached the end of the long hallway where a small cage was waiting. Said cage had been set up to hold any animals that might have wondered into the base on accident since there was still many unknown entrances leading to the wreaked craft. Now it was about to hold a different kind of prisoner. A psychotic little kid known as me, Zoe the Snob Killer.

Pff! I wish!

Oh, how miserable I was sitting alone behind iron bars like a convict who was blamed for a crime he didn't commit. The only difference between me and that sob story was that I _had_ committed a crime, which if you haven't figured out by now was attempted murder. I bet my left arm that Shaytan would be so ashamed of me right about now. But there was one person who took it the opposite way. The cause of my agony made himself known with the representation of two very pink and very _ugly_ optics.

No, he wasn't in the base, but in my mind. Again. He was chuckling in a proud yet enigmatic fashion, an invisible smirk hidden under the face plate. A few sore and annoyed growls were sent his way but he only waved them off and continued to beam silently down at me. For once in my feeble life I just sat there and took it laying down. My expression had been worn down to the bare bones by stress, fatigue and the pounding headache the transformer brought with him. At first I expected him to stop laughing and speak to me but he never did. After several long moments the twin hues slowly drifted away into the fog of confusion trailing Sideways' voice as it echoed around and around tell it to became choked off by the cloudy thoughts in my mind. Finally the sore feeling in my brain melted away and I was once again in a neutral state of mind. No thoughts or feelings stirred about in the darkness as I allow myself to lean up against the thick bars of the cell.

For five whole minuets I stared up at the ceiling not listening to the drones of several male voices in the hallways. Finally sleep found me again and wrapped up my suffering body in a clean warm wing, lolling me into peaceful silence. Enjoy the Silence.

During the fleeting arguments of the others, two humans sat together in a secluded room not too far from the command center. Alexis who while huddled on the couch, was being comforted by the very same person who had just saved her life. Even though Billy and Fred had been worried about them, the two teens were oblivious to everyone but themselves. So the others had been forced to sit in the adjoining wing and listen in relative silence to the autobot's loud speeches.

The boy shifted slightly to make the girl's head more comfortable when she set it lightly on his shoulder. Rad really couldn't help but smile. Finally after playing her 'hard to get' game for so long, his dedication had paid off. Even though she was very nearly killed, Alexis had come to realize the feelings she had for him. She looked up at Rad with a soft stare as her hazel eyes tracing the length of the long cut tha hadt split his cheek. The boy noticed her concern so he bent down and gave her a small kiss on the forehead.

"it's just a scratch, besides nothing can mar my good looks" Rad intoned with some humor, hoping to make his lover feel better. His fake smile turned into a real one when he heard the brunet giggle. He then engulfed her in a tight embrace, holding Alexis like he was never letting go of her again. And quit frankly she wouldn't want it any other way as the girl returned the gesture by putting her arms around his neck.

Sadly, those two were the only ones in a good mood. The argument mentioned above was still going on loud and clear in the command center. Two voices dominated over all the others. The owners of those voices stood aside from the group so they could talk to each other about more important matter.

"It was a last resort okay?" Scavenger grumbled as he drew away slightly from the hard look his former student was giving him.

Prime glaring at anyone other then Megs was rare and rather...disturbing. Optimus snapped head back toward the hallway where I was being held. He scowled grimly at it for a while before turning to the older bot.

"Why the slag would she do something like that?" he demanded and Scavenger's expression soured in reply.

"That kid's not right I told you that already" the green autobot answered roughly.

"And I say that Sideways must have done something to her to make her act that way" the red one stated firmly.

Although he really had no evidence to prove this, the semi had a gut feeling that his hunch was true. Too bad his old friend didn't seem to look at things his way. This was strange indeed since the two autobots had so much in common. The only real difference between them was that one was sparked a Decepticon, the other a pure born Autobot.

"Some humans are like that" Scavenger retorted in a slighted irritated tone.

"Maybe, but we still can't keep Zoe here against her will forever"

Scavenger nodded in agreement "then we'll take her back to her home...in Florida if the decepticon records were correct"

When Optimus didn't answer him for a while, his as colored optic ridge raised as he addressed the semi with a questioning look that was so thick that it could have been physically felt by almost anyone. Finally Prime looked up at him but his face somewhat downcast even with the mask covering it. He only nodded in reply, which left the bulldozer wondering what his old student was really thinking.

"I'll take her back once she gets a clean bill of heath from Red Alert of course" Scavenger stated in a reassuring fashion.

Optimus's golden optics appeared soften a little as he nodded in agreement. Then in one explosive shout the leader of all the autobots ceased the loud rambling of his underlings before walking off down the hall way. Scavenger lingered by a moment more before he too sunk back into the background like he preferred to do.

At around this time the dream I was experiencing reached it's terrifying climax just as the sound of thundering footfalls was heard in front of me. All at once I came shooting up from my repose and flailed around in the cage like a strangled bird before I realized I was not being tortured anymore. Taking in a deep breath I sank back to the floor only to encounter the stern gaze of the masked autobot above me.

"What do you want now?" I weakly growled at him.

"Why did you do that? Attack Alexis like that for no reason?"

"Oh, I _had_ a reason for doing that believe me..."

His silver and blue head tilted to the side a little as if asking me to continue.

"I hate people like her" I continued "they're always thinking that they're better then everyone else"

"she's not like that all!" he protested.

"I don't give a slag about what you think" I scowled "when I decide to hate someone, I hate them. End of story, now can I got back to sleep?"

Prime made a sound like a small burst of static in what was believed to be a sigh before the sudden rattling of metal bars startled me. The cage was being lifted up carefully by his huge grey hand. My belly started to lurch at the quick movements but I swallowed back the urge to heave as I shifted into a better position. Or at least one that would allow me to run like hell the second the lid was pried off.

Optimus turned the corner and we ended up at the entrance of the medical wing.

'Here we go again' I thought bitterly when the hydraulic door slide open without a sound. Hunched over a work desk was the familiar back end of the blue and white medic. The unexpected noise of the semi's approach caused Red Alert to quickly drop whatever he was messing with, almost braking several glass tubes that were lined up on the table behind him.

"Oh sorry sir, didn't see you there..." at that point the medic's normally calm demeanor turned sour once he spotted me in the larger bot's hand. Before he could speak however Optimus' free hand was held up to silence him.

"Don't worry Zoe won't be here much longer. I just need you to check her over for any injures before we send her home"

The blue and grey face became confused and a little worried "you're just going to let her go? But she know about us. What if she tells others our secret?"

"I doubt that'll happen "came the reply "the base is thousands of miles from Florida so she won't have any proof of it even if she did report it to anyone"

"you wanna bet smartass?' I mentally snarled, glaring at Prime but he took no notice as his third in command spoke up again.

"Good point" the medic nodded as he received the cage Optimus handed to him.

Now was my chance.

All at once an jolt of animalistic desperation crackled through my limbs as I lowered myself into a crouch and waited eager and twitching, but doing so in such a subtle way that I was not discovered.

Or so I thought.

One of them did realize what I was about to do and stopped the other from unlocking the lid by grabbing his wrist. Very, very cautiously Prime hovered his right hand over the cage while the left one slowly undid the latch. Just as soon as the overhead light came pouring in, I launched upward in a single super powered jump. With the wind rushing past me I gave a little whoop of joy thinking I was home free but as I soon learned that I was celebrating my victory far too soon. Seconds later I smacked right into the outstretched palm like a fly being caught off guard by the swatter. I let out a gasp as hard metal contacted flesh and only then was I aware of the trap that I had shamefully fallen into. Anger welt up in my chest as I felt Prime's cold fingers snap shut, cutting off any chance of escaping. In a quick burst of wild frustration I began to violently reel, kick and bite at the rubbery joint material like a grizzly bear tearing apart a rabbit.

This was no help to me at all and it only succeeded in cracking one of my teeth. The pain from the chipped tooth forced me to stop fighting the autobot all together and I was therefor left utterly hopeless. Once Optimus saw that I had finally calmed down, taking gentle hold he placed me into Red Alert's waiting palm. Five minuets went by and all I did was sit there like a dead weight as the medic examined me. Eventually the wondering blue digits receded from my body, which prompted me look back purely out of curiosity. To my surprise find the two transformers staring down at me like I my eyes just fallen out of my skull. Irritably, my lips down in a display of annoyance which I quickly aimed at the two metal beings standing before me.

"Will you quit looking at me like that!" I snapped as harshly I could.

"B-but!" the SUV stuttered "you were injured only an hour ago!

"And I should care why?"

"Because there's no way a human can heal _that_ fast, slag not even a transformer can for that matter!"

"And you're point is?"

"..." that was all I got as an answer.

Beside him, the flame colored truck could be heard groaning in expiration as he pressed the flat of his palm against the shiny blue metal of his head crest. A simple gesture he had obviously picked up from the humans.

"Never mind" the Matrix carrier sighed as he rubbed at the sides of his helmet in a manner similar to someone who suffering from a throbbing headache "let's just get you home"

"finally!" I yelled out loud.

Startled, the medic bot shook his head rapidly as if being brought back to reality. He somewhat offered to help me off the table, but I refused him. Instead I simply hopped off the edge again, landed on the floor like last time. I then walked over to the door way and waiting there was the former spy casually leaning on the wall a few feet from the observation window. He righted himself when I sauntered by and regarded him with a bored expression. Behind me, the leader stuck his head out the door and gave the older one a small and tired nod. I was then plucked off the floor by Scavenger's big purple fingers and set me down firmly on his wide shoulder plate. As he headed to the warp gate without a word I took the opportunity to settle down on the cool green metal and just be grateful from the fact that I was finally getting away from these stupid people.

Behind me I could heard the sound of thundering foot steps at a running pace, and judging from the slight pause in the beat whom ever the footsteps belonged to must be limping. Soon enough a flash of right yellow and red caused Scavenger to stop and me to look over.

Hotshot finally caught up to us as stood in front of the old bot, heaving and panting as if the run have been an effort for him. And it had. He was still in a state of disrepair from today's battle but neglected the need to heal because Red Alert had been to busy looking after me.

After what seemed like hours, the young Autobots managed to calm down and look up at me. Scavenger did nothing other then stand there and give him his space.

"I..." Hotshot began, though weakly "just wanted...to thank you for getting out of trouble...back on the moon"

"whatever" was my harsh reply.

Poor Hotshot was left stunned at what I had said. Scavenger seemed like he wanted to say something to me but shut his mouth and instead shook his head. With that he turned away from the silent yellow transformed and continued to the warp gate. However once we were there he placed me down on the floor and looked at me, his optics giving off a stern glow.

"Why did you cut him down like that, I thought you let him go because you could relate to him in his situation?" the bulldozer's voice matched his optics.

I snuffed "I felt sorry for him, that's all"

He paused a long moment before saying in a low dreary tone "are all you humans like this or just you?"

"Figure it out you're self, I'm not answering anymore of your questions" I growled.

He let it drop at that point, though he seemed throughly annoyed. 'Good' I thought bitterly 'I hope he's mad because he deserves it for taking me away from the only friends I've ever had'

Seconds later the massive growling and rumbling of the huge warp gate came to life in front of us. A large panoramic display screen decorated the far wall in vivid colors which danced all to brightly right into my tired and irritated eyes. Rubbing the sore lids, I didn't see Scavenger transforming into vehicle mode I could hear it over the loud drone of the machinery. Reluctantly I stepped up into the bluntly familiar cockpit, thoughts of escape still fresh in my brain. Rather or not I should just bolt right now while I still had the chance or to just succumb to fate and let my life play it course were the two main debates. Somewhere in the bottom f my mind, the ever present entity known as Sideways quietly pushed my body along into the seat. Therefor I chose to give up, much to my own misery.

It was now or never, if I still was able, I could have got up and ran but I stayed seated even as the belt snaked across my chest and pinned me firmly in place. Now I was at Scavenger's mercy. And suddenly I began to feel very, very helpless. Like I was being sent off to death row. The bulldozer for all that he was worth didn't seem to notice this at all. Not like it would really matter anyways. He had is orders and had to follow them no matter what. I put up no protest so I couldn't help but feel that I was partially responsible for my own, inevitable death. But you know what? I just don't give a shit anymore. All life has ever brought me was suffering so at least now I'm able to finally die. Peacefully or violently, heaven of hell I just wanted it to end.

The loud groaning of the machines grew to a fever pitch as the glowing screen began to fold inward. In a single lurching, twisting motion me, Scavenger and a good chunk of the air around us was flung into the wall only to phase through and end up in another part of the world entirely.

As fast it happened it had stopped. My whole body flung forward, halted only by the purple seat belt holding me in place. Taking several deep breaths I peeked through his dirty wind shield to see that we were surround in sea of dry cracked grass, parched brown trees that had lost all thier trees from the unrelenting heat weeks ago. All it took was a single sniff of the humid pungent air for me to sneeze as the scent of dirt was wafting in through the door cracks.

'_Yep, we're in Florida alright...'_ I though blunter then a baseball bat.

A sudden click near my left arm made jerk it back to see that the lock had been released and I was free to get out, which I gladly did. My reward was the sharp prickle of weeds nipping at my toes, it hurt but I was just happy to be somewhere other then that horridly bright base the Autobots stayed in. Lifting my bare feet from the ground I took several steps, heels and soles scrapping against more moisture-less plants, leaving small scratches. The sound of shifting metal did not make me look up, I already knew that the bulldozer behind me was in the process of becoming something entirely different. As soon as I heard no more noise I turned around slowly, letting me scratches form as I regarded Scavenger with a deathly calm face.

"You really like being a brick in my wall, don't you?" The words immediate more statement then question since I didn't really care what his answer was. But what he did say was not related to what I just said, much to my surprise.

"This location should be close to your town so you shouldn't have to walk a long ways" he intoned in an almost monotone fashion.

"You're just going to let me go?"

"Yes...you obviously don't like it over at the base so it's best that you go home, were you belong"

My immediate response was "I don't belong _anywhere_"

he only glanced back at him, his expression displaying both uneasy and sympathy. It confused me but I wasn't going to question him about it.

"I'll be off then" those were my last words before I bolted off into the dry forest a trail of crushed grass in my wave.

Very, very slowly Scavenger turned back around and did nothing more. His senses, sharpened by countless years of battle and espionage told him something was about to happen to me. In all his years of being both an Autobot and Decepticon, he had never felt anything like it. Every time he looked into my eyes he could see and even _feel_ the pain the was radiating through them. Why noone seemed to see this, he didn't know but one thing he was sure of. Those scars on my body were NOT from some slagging accident.

But...he simply couldn't ignore Optimus' orders. Scavenger had already given his opinion on the matter and had been turned down. He figured that it was my little stunt that made Prime want to get rid of me, for the safety of the brat-er children. Reluctantly he took one giant step forward, the echo booming around the dry air and he activated his warp drive.

It had only been five minuets of running and I was already lost. The faint smell of car exhaust that I picked up before had faded into the dust air, making it impossible to track. Now I was forced to stop and take temporary refuge under a tree that really didn't provide much shade due it's unhealthy nature. This at least gave me time to think...

Come to think of it...it had been...days? Since I had something to eat but for some reason I was never hungry, not even a bit. In addition I had not had any water as well and the result was the same. This however, didn't seem to surprise me as much as it should have. I figured that Sideways made me more durable however he did it. Good thing though because all hunger and thirst would have done for me at this point was slow me down. At this rate if I could get my bearings straight then I could possible find my city with in the course of the day. I had plenty of time, the sun was still burning bright and high in the sky and it would not set for many more hours. And then a sent hit me, one very familiar. It smelled like smoke. No not smoke like from a fire but smoke from a cigarette. A very STRONG cigarette.

Getting up off the upturned roots, I began to pushed myself in that direction, the smell getting stronger and heavier then before. Soon, sooner then I expected, I was upon a decrepit old house. Badly kept with wood the color of a storm cloud and vines thicker then my fingers choking it's sides like vice grips. The sight caused a painful flash to hit my mind's eye like a bullet.

'It's...my old house...' came my fearful answer.

Old didn't even began to describe it's condition. The many years had all but eaten away at the paint of the house leaving behind the bare wood. Tiny spots of black where termites had chewed away at the structure were big enough to fit a baseball through. If there were bolts that held it up, they were surely rotted by now, hanging on by just a thread. Surrounding the aged structure was a thick carpet of tall, thin grass, bone dry and as tan as the ground it grew from. The mere sight of the image before me made my heart jump, mind swimming with unpleasant emotions that I was not used to feeling. Gripping my chest, I took several small careful steps through the overgrown lawn, fighting my way to the front porch. Thankfully it's typical occuapnt was not there but the tattered bench where _he_ usually sat still dominated the flat concrete patio. The area covering a radius of only a few feet circled the old porch was surprisingly bare of any grass, not even weeds dared to crawl beyond the boundaries of the grass line. Not even I was brave enough to venture any farther, the sense of dread was just to intense. Soon enough I couldn;t take anymore of it and my feet found themselfs sprinting through the gnarled brush to a location which I could not figure out just yet.

When finally my heart stopped racing enough for me to slow down, I can to a dead halt, panting for breath. Heated air was drawn into my lung, stinging my chest, but I was too tired to care about it. In the distance, the looming burning sphere hanging loosely in the sky began to sink further and further down. Shadows previously unnoticedduring the day began to drag away from their sources to nip at the remaining light, eating up. Growing wary of the fast approaching night I began to wonder toward the bright aura of the near by town. Soon the strong intoxication scent of the city could be smelled through the heavily cloud of dry air clinging the forest. Unpon emerging from the brush I was suddenly in a clearing made when something very large had crashed through and impacted the ground. It didn't take me to figure where I was.

'Wow...' I blinked 'if _this_ is where Cyclonus was shot down them I must not be far from...'

I was cut off in mid sentence when another voice, shrill and desperate pierced the darkness.

"Zoe! Zoe where are you!?"

"Shaytan!" I shouted back. A started gasp and the sound of heavy combat boots came rushing into the wide semi crater. His bulky form soon burst from the foliage, chest heaving and green eyes wild. Without waiting for a reply I embraced my long time guardian in tight hug, my eyes watering. Dropping the flashlight, the military man returned it eagerly.

"Where have you been!?" Shayten demanded in a strong but worried voice.

"I..." I stuttered "I was lost, I got chased by a stray dog and couldn't find my way back"

expression softening, the man stroked my tangled dirty hair with one wide hand, the other rubbing my back. We stayed like for what seemed like forever before my guardian pulled away, shrugging off his padded jacket then draping it over my thin shoulders. No words were exchanged as he lead me away from the forest and back to his warm comfy home at the outskirts of town. A soft glow sifted through the trees as we approached and entered the mansion.

Moist and delicious wind brushed against my face as we walked inside. I sat down in one of the many cushioned chair littering the living room, pulling the coat around me. The man looked at me for a while then trotted into the kitchen near by. A short amount of time passed and my nose was soon filled with the tempting smell of food. Normally my belly would be growl, demanding that it be fed but this time it stayed quiet. Ignoring it, I swirled my worn out feet beep into the fur like carpet, trying to sooth the throbbing in my poor toes. It was then that I realized that I really wasn't in that good a shape. As far as I knew it, I had not consumed anything in day and hadn't had a bath in twice as long. I can't even remember how long it's been since I last combed my hair.

Again my thoughts were set aside as Shayten came into the room, baring a plate of mini pizzas, my favorite food in the world. Smiling, he placed the dish on the table in front of me and walked off to let me eat in peace. I picked up the one closest to me, not caring for the fact that it was still very hot and popping it into my mouth. But as soon as the crispy snake hit my tounge, my stomach lurched. I hastily spat it back and closed my mouth again, swallowing hard. It took a while but my gut finally settled. Again I attempted to eat but with the same result. I was too afraid that I would throw up if I tried to force it down so reluctantly, I abandoned the plate full of tasty pizzas and laid down along the couch. As much as I wanted to sleep, a strange aching welt up behind my eye lids, keeping me from the much desired rest.

Sitting up irritably, I pushed myself off the sofa and padded my way down the long hall. The lamps in this part of the house were sparse so the place was not as radiantly lit as the living room or kitchen. Creeping past Shayten's room, I slowly pushed open the door to my rarely use bedroom. Memories stirred up in my head but I pain them no heed. Instead I strained my eyes in the dimness to seek out the dresser in the far corner. Once I spotted it I took out a few outfits, a few choise items, and a small gold neckless my mother had left me before she died. Whipping a hot tear, I stuffed the cloths into a backpack before clipping on the gold chain. It jingled softly, the pendant perched lightly against my slowly raising chest. Sighing deeply, I tore my eyes away from it's wonderful glitter to gaze through the frosty window on the wall next to me. A single beam on moon light drift down from the sill to cast a soft glow upon the simple backpack at my feet as if urging me tp pick up and leave. I did just that.

The window I was previously regarding was shoved open, exposing the inside air to outdoors. Swinging my skinny legs over the sill, I pushed off and landed firmly on the ground below. Fresh black sky greeted me with speckles of stars, twinkling calmly in the distant space. Then I was off again, revived feet skimming swiftly over sharp grass, racing away for comfer and into regions unknown.

Within the wide space of a steel room stood two figures. One massive and green sat with his broad back propped up against a large box while the second, younger, smaller and vivid in color processed to perform several mid air punches and kick which were all but ignored. Blue optics belonging to the mech Hotshot blinked as they flickered over to the half asleep half awake instructor in the corner, obviously unaware of him. Sighing, the sports car let his fists fall to his side.

'It's useless' though Hotshot 'he's too depressed about that girl to pay any attention to me'

As if the veteran heard his musing, a rough growl was heard from somewhere inside the vast chest of the old mech.

"I'm not depressed" Scavenger stated "I just have a bad feeling about the whole thing"

Interest sparked, Hotshot sauntered over to the larger mech "what about?" he continued.

Gold optics, glowed a shade brighter, the owner replied "Zoe"

Hotshot fought back a cringe "Why? I mean she should be safe back in her human settlement right?"

"Not necessarily" said the bulldozer.

Yellow head tilted slightly Hotshot asked "What do you mean?"

"Remember that News station the kids were watch on the TV? It was talking about a Child Abuse case, or something like that"

Optics flashing, the young mech said "Oh yeah! But what does that have to do with anything?"

Scavenger's expression tensed slightly "Think about, why else would she be so afraid to go back home?"

The other shrugged "how would you that, that was the reason?"

"I'm old" the warrior said bluntly "when you'er old you'll notice stuff like that"

"Okay..." Hotshot sighed awkwardly " but is that the only reason?"

The black, silver toped head shook stiffly "Zoe had those scars"

"They could have been from anywhere"

Finally, his instructor looked up him "they also appeared to have been neglected, none if any medical treatment was done to repair them"

Now it was Hotshot's turn to shake his head "I'm not sure, I didn't get a good enough look at her to notice..."

Scavenger nodded in understanding, his powerful legs pushing him off the floor as he stood up and began to make his way out the door.

His young student sighed in defeat, but did nothing to stop the older Autobot from leaving. He didn't even have to guess where he was going.

I paused, looking on in stunned silence at the looming crumbling house before me. Hollow windows flickered with a weak light, a show moving in and out of view on occasion. A slurred, drunken voice could sometimes be hear floating out into the dark air, burning the inside of my ears. Unlike last time, I was standing in the grassless dirt a few feet from the barely standing porch. Something deep inside of me was smoldering with anger, wanting revenge...but I was afraid. I wanted to run but my feet had seemed to root themselves in place against my will. Eyes staring straight ahead, my legs propelled themselves forward in slow, stiff strides one by one tell they reached the battered door. Without really wanting to, a hand lifted it's self up and knocked on the splintering wood. The voice suddenly stopped, replaced by the sound of feet coming into contact with tiled floors as they swaggered over. A click was hear as the portal creaked open, revealing the half standing image of my aging father. He was worse them I remembered.

The years had not been kind to him and neither had the liquor or cigarets. Scowling, the wiry man dented down, stumbled, almost following then peered down through gazed hazel eyes into my own blue ones. He said one thing and one thing only.

"_You_"

"Yesss" I hissed back, my vocal chords rasping. My father glowered at me with his red rimmed eyes as he thrust out an arm to grab me by the throat, throwing me inside and slamming the door behind him. Splayed out on the grimy floor I glared upwards to find his scuffed up foot fly into my exposed belly. Growling in pain I was flipped over onto my back. The foot stomped onto my chest, choking me. More and more weight was being forced into me as I struggled weakly against the crushing blow. Thankfully it lasted only a little while but was soon joined by a severe punch to the head. Apparently, my instincts took that was the last straw and my own fist collided with the side of his hairy face. A surprised grunt was my reward, allowing me to jump up and away as he fell from lack of balance. Just as quickly as he went down, he was up again, swinging wildly, but hitting nothing. A swift fore arm seized his leg and yanked back with enough power to throw him to the floor once again. Now truly enraged, the drunk brute came shoot off the tile and right ontop of my body. I had no time to move away and was pinned.

"I got you now!" he cackled as he reached up onto a near by table, finding what he was looking for and pulled down into my sight. My eye promptly went several sizes bigger at what I saw.

Old Bessy. The same blade that had tortured me was a ghast of it's former self just like it's owner. But like it's owner, it was still deadly. Laughing in pure joy, the ragged old man shoved the rusted point into my fore arm. While not puncturing as deeply as it could have, the pain was still mind blowing. The scream that therefor emerged from my throat burned on it's way up and continued to do so until the pain subsided. Unable to lick the blood off due to the rust, he simply whipped it off on his shirt and brought it up to my face, the blunted tip hovering inches from my left cheek. Although it was dark, I could still very well tell that he was having as much fun as he had all those years back...and that when I lost it.

Unknowingly a animalistic snarl escaped my lips and clawed at the lingering horrid face in front of me. Fingers tensed and then fly into the eyes of my tormentor, wanting nothing more then to tear them right from their accursed sockets. My teeth flashed a grin as he shouted and drew back away from me. Grabbing his red stained shirt and whirled him forward and then to he side. A crack was issued forth from the busted skull as it hit the floor. But I didn't stop there, oh no...I was going to do much worse.

"I've become so numb" I growled quietly "I can't feel you there"

The dark form on before me shifted, head turning sorely to look at me in confusion and pain. I didn't wait for a reply

"Become so tired" I continued "so much more aware"

I kicked him, he went gown in a heap and I continued longer still, not caring if he was even listening "all I want to do is be more like and be less like you"

But he _was_ listening, waiting for me to start preaching so he can make his move. He did...the next thing I knew I was subject to a bombardment of furious alcohol driven puchs and kicks, one after another. My back had slammed into a chair which fell apart on contact but he still didn't start. Taking Old Bessy he plunged it into me me, letting it linger before twisting it. I let out another throat tearing scream, my senses overflowing with burning, stinging pain. For all I was worth I had put up a fight and now I was wasted. There was nothing left in me to protect myself against this onslaught. I was now at his full mercy. Fear, thought and eyes sight soon became lost to the darkness of losing awareness. As my body was ripped to shreds, an odd sense of satisfaction reached my mind. Strangely, I was...happy. I had gotten my point across and now I saw life as useless. Even if I did live, there was nothing to go back...so I just sat there and let the rampaging drunk do his worst...

There I laid beaten, bloody and bruised. Not a single inch of my body had been spared. Pain was now just a dull far away sensation lingering like a cold ache inside my bones. My brain did hurt a little, but it was more of a mental problem then anything else. In fact I was blissfully numb from head to toe and very much thankful for it. Smiling slightly I looked through blurred eyes at the tall dark columns and allowed my vison to trail up from the wide base until it reached the wildly frayed tops... Trees, yes these were trees. Simple swamp trees with their thin wiry branches during the chilly winter and plump green leaves in the summer.

But what they looked like didn't matter much. They were just the old, immobile and silent ghosts that haunted my backyard day in and day out. But now they seemed a little more lively, ironic consider that everything else (including me) was deadly still. Suddenly a white grey wind whipped up from the south to shudder the tiny emerald blades which created a soft harmonic melody that seemed to sing of long forgotten memories. Yes it was indeed a wonderfully sad sound. Strange how that at the moment of death, one can sometimes be at final peace. Although I was not sure if my wounds were fetal enough to kill me, I still felt this inner Nirvana none the less. And what a feeling it was, but yet so horribly ironic it was actually funny.

I chuckled to further my own point.

Above me, the pale eye of the dotted black abyss shone a glimmering carpet of pearly steam upon me. The moon was the exact opposite of the sun. It had that odd ability to produce light with out a heat byproduct. Just like cold fusion in it's most pure and natural form.

Why I'm thinking like this I may never know, but think I did. So unlike the old me, or rather...the _young _me. Ah such rapture a few words of the mind can make for one's self. Now in the dim peaceful glow of inner thought, I loose myself. I'm no longer aware that I'm half naked and covered in my own blood. No longer aware of _why_ or even _how _or _when_ I got this way. It was all just a faded image that had long ago become lost in the realm of broken dreams and crushed hope. Nothing now can pull me away from my euphoric trance.

That is until I heard the muffled crash of large heavy footsteps as they landed on the damp earth. The quiet ghosts in my yard snapped to life and parted their swaying arms to make way for the dark giant. Once clear of the trees the lumbering metal being stepped into the small field of flat brown grass with a booming echo. It took only two small strides of his great legs to reach me. Now with in range of sight I could identify my non human visitor. But it did not make me happy, not a single bit.

"Scavenger" I growled my voice was horse and spiteful.

The bulldozer seemed to ignore the warning as he swiftly knelt down so he was (mostly) at my level. He gazed down softly with his golden optics dim and low showing a father-like sympathy that I could never understand even if I lived to be a hundred. For a many long moments all we did was sit and stare at each other, locked in awkward silence. Then I finally gained the strength the speak.

"Just leave me here. I'm going to die anyways so why even bother"

his response so quiet that I almost didn't hear him "because I care about you kid"

"Why?" I retorted as sharply as my sure lungs allowed me to "After all the trouble I caused you and the others?"

"It's the autobot way" although he said this with pride, there was still a nearly transparent air of shame lingering under his breath. There was a good reason for it though. It was he who suggested that I be taken back to Florida after his comrades gained custody of me. For Scavenger it was just about the biggest mistake he had made in a _very_ long time. And by Primus he was determined to make it up some how.

His chances were growing slim because of my condition. The bleeding had not stopped and the wounds were defiantly infected by now. If he was going to save me he would have to be quick about it. Like hell I was going him to give the opportunity to do that. Right now I wanted everything to go away and just leave me the fuck alone. The bulldozer understood this of course and thats what made this so hard for him to deal with. He knew full well that I was angry beyond belief and that I had a right to be so. The _real_ reason why he was trying to save me was more from the strong urge to protect me. Truthfully I couldn't blame the old bot, mainly because he wasn't the only transformer to develop a friendship with a human. But that's beyond the point. The point is he screwed up and I wasn't going to forgive him for it. _Ever_.

"Go to hell" I hissed.

The dozer heaved a sigh before I saw one of his black arms unwrap from his body to reach out and catch me. In response I emitted a frightening cat like screech and lashed out at the hand. Like lightning his fine tuned reflexed pulled away from me before I could hit him, if I had there was a good chance that I would have hurt myself. Scavenger replaced his arm by his side and seemed to go into a brief state of grieve.

While he did this I took the time to carefully shuffle back against the back door to my house hoping that the awning above me would hinder his attempts at least a little bit. This was not an easy task. The blinding pain backlashed into me the second I started moving again. Moreover the rough surface of the concrete grated against my bare naked waist each time I heaved my body to the side. It took me a while but I finally managed to reach the back of the patio a wide trail of red water in my wake.

The picture frame shaped opening of the porch was soon filed up by his shadowed face as he bent over further to get sight of me. My rage was boiling at this pont, after all I had done to stay away from him, he _still_ didn't give up. Much to my embarrassment I felt hot tears beginning to leave burning paths down my icy cold cheeks.

"J-jsut please" I sobbed "leave me alone, I want to die. I want to forget that I was ever forced to live such a god damned miserable existence. Don't you see...YOU'RE ONLY MAKING THINGS WORSE!!"

Stern and stoic Scavenger visibly winced at the harshness my tone. So much so that his frame became bent and drawn with defeat. He sat like for several moment before making the hard decision to heed my request and leave. I watched with a satisfied smile as the bulldozer transformed and turned in the direction of the highway. Scavenger paused for only a second or two in what I guessed to be a final glance before the purr of heavy engines stated up. Now I was alone again with the trees and the moon and sounds of the wind. My little paradise was once again mine and mine only. I laid there in a dumb stupor as my dad snored away on the couch, completely oblivious to all that had just happened. I pitied him really, he was such a stupid man not to realize how much of a waste of space he was. Oh well, he can be good worm food once he kicked the bucket.

As softly as a new born's breath the warm soothing blanket of sleep slowly slipped over my battered body, easing away pain and banishing negative thoughts like a crucifix warding away demons...unfortunately I never got that chance, half way up the wall where the shadows reached their apex, a pair of smirking pink optics watched as the owner patiently waited for his chance to strike...

* * *

Tori: (falls over) I'm bushed...

Cyclonus: (pokes) ...okay I think that's it for her...see ya!


	9. Ch9

Stormy: Oh my freaking god I am SO SORRY this is so late! But hey, at least I finally managed to actually finish a series! cheers Anyways, a sequal is coming VERY SOON I just need to plan out some...extra tid bits to lay out and some serious brain storming to do but it will get done. If it doesn't then please forgive me because I've been bogged down by loads of school work, making progress rather hard. The good news is that I've already complete the first chapter of said sequal so there shouldn't be much delay. And I swear to god if doesn't put this update on the page I WELL HAVE A COW. sigh Man does this site ever need an FAQ...

Desclaimer: I do not own Transformers: Armada, only Zoe and the plot of the story.

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Black tentacles wrapped around bleeding flesh, taking it into it's collective mass, absorbing it. The darkly colored blob of static shifted it's contents carefully before literally darting into the sky at such a speed it caused a sonic boom. Clouds were speared through like they never existed as the Minion hit the thick atmosphere. The heat of breaking the ozone layer didn't bother him in the least bit and neither did the sub zero chill that resulted afterwards. His only concern now was the precious cargo sleeping, just barely functioning inside of his body.

The only reason the adolescent wasn't dead yet was simply the fact that she was needed by a celestial being that was far more important and infinity more powerful then her own race could ever be. Sideways mused on this a while, wondering for a moment what he and his Master would do with Earth once the Transformers, and Cybertron along with them, were exterminated. The thought of slowly tearing apart the messy, gooey insides of the planet like a child would mush play-dough excited him greatly. Rarely was a planet ever as full of life and warm inviting heat as Earth was. Indeed, Sideways couldn't help but smirk at the image he conceived of his Master chewing on it like one would chew on a bar of fine chocolate.

A semi strong flux of filtering energy reminded the Minion that he had a job to do and he needed to do it well if Their plan was going to work. Slowing his speed slightly as to let his body cool down from the massive amount of kinetic energy he collected while exiting Earth's atmosphere allowed him some time to cook up a good little lie to tell Megatron when Her transformation was finally complete. It took only seconds for Sideways to think it up and once he did he picked out a spot on the perpetually dark side of the moon while will provide him with the shelter he needed and also the camouflage to avoid detection.

The liquified motorcycle reformed some of his original shape but only just enough to allow him some advantage over the trillions of dust particles floating without order all through out the surface and for many miles upwards until he touched down on the yawning door way of a fairly large cave-like tunnel created when a fast moving chunk of metal from the Minicon ship slammed and dug into the ground for at least mile until coming to a full stop. It was perfect for his needs and it was very dark inside which was an extra plus in his book.

Mentally grinning, sideways stepped forward, form still not completely solid until his almost girlish excitement urged him to turn back into the blob like streak of static and flying towards the end with gusto. Once he got there he did one more through check of the small somewhat alive human held in his belly before his limbs melted into long tendrils that shot out from his torso like bullets, lodging firmly into the dark grey walls of the cave. Giving a great heave, he reshaped his form into a pillar like structure that he shifted into place along the floor and ceiling. Lastly but not before chuckling lightly and darkly, his metal 'skin' hardened to resemble a very stone like texture just like all of the rock that surrounded him.

Zoe would only have to wait for a short while. The raw power his Master was giving him to fulfill his task was more then enough to give her soon to be brand new body all it needed to be a truly powerful and brilliant representation of all They worked for. Sideways already had a good idea of what her new form was going to look like and he quickly set to work on it as soon as he was anchored like steel.

Somewhere off into the vast plane of space, far beyond the reach of anything mortal, a God smirked, matching the one his loyal minion held at the very same moment. No. She wouldn't have to wait long at all...

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Stormy: I apologize for the apparent breifness of this chapter but I had planned it to be "short but sweet". Not quit sure if I achived this or not but all of that is mainly up the reader anyways. Again, I'm sorry for ANY spelling and gramar mistakes and also for plot holes if there are any. If there is, then please tell me so I can fix it in the sequal. I know this whole story ended in one big cliffhanger but hey, that's what keeps people coming back! As always, please read and review! Don't hold back now! XD 


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